The Reign of Golden Darkness
by Amidamaru88
Summary: It was seen by many as one of the greatest periods in Konoha's history while others called it one of the darkest ones, however no one could deny the mark left by Gold Darknesses .
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own Naruto,** if I did he would have two sisters Mito and Naruko.

Talk now – normal talk  
_What now_ – normal thoughts  
**Speak – biju talk**  
**_Listen_**** – biju thoughts**

**Chapter 1 : The Ascension **

Konoha, evening, 23 August, 6 years after the Kyuubi attack.

The night air was cold as the last days of summer were passing and autumn fast approached, the people moved about their business as they had done in days before, shops were closing, children returning home from playing with their friends, parents making dinner for there familys, night shift begins for the guards around the walls, they were unaware that this day would soon be marked as a turning point in Konoha's history.

Near the forest of death lay a villa, now covered by roots and vines, intricate seals could still be seen beneath them, many regarded it as a historical monument of Konoha, a place were one of the strongest shinobi of Konoha had lived, that should gave been reclaimed, while others thought that it was a ruin.

Many had tried to gain access only to fail. The more stubborn had soon discovered that the seals would harm those that were persistent. With the disappearance of the owner before the first shinobi world war many had attempted to enter the place and claim it's treasures, only to fail in doing so. The Hokage quickly had passed a law that none should attempt to enter the place. That it would remain undisturbed until its owner returned, however long it would take.

It is within the house, in a secret chamber, were seals covered the walls, in the middle of it a golden tank with seals written on it's sides, filled with a blue liquid, could be found, the sound of glass slowly breaking could be heard coming from underneath it, the sound became louder with each passing moment until like a torrent the sound of a thousand glasses breaking could be heard.

A figure emerged from the golden tank a woman with tanned skin, blue icy eyes and waist-length dark blond hair with two bangs framing her face. Her attire took the form of the an old shinobi armour, consisting of dark red traditional armour — similar to that of samurai — worn over a simple black suit. The armour was constructed from numerous metal plates, formed into multiple protective guards along her body, in particular: chest, shoulders, thighs and forearms. Each collar of her shoulder guards bore the Uzumaki and Konoha symbol emblazoned on them.

The woman smiled, the seal had worked, to what degree she would soon discover, if everything was on schedule she could begin her plan in earnest.

She made her way towards the door and activated the seal on it to open it for her, her steps showed purpose, with a quick hand moved, several clones appeared behind her.

The clones had one knee on the ground, their right hand on their chest, their left hand on the ground as well, it was that of a samurai swearing fealty to their lord. She stopped for a moment, and gave them a quick glance, the clones nodded then quickly took off, each had a task to perform.

She managed to reach the control room of her villa, the heart of the place, she smiled at this, it had taken her a great deal of time to design and build this place, just as she wanted it. All the blood, sweat, tears and time lost, but she had managed to create the home she desired.

She swiped blood upon the door leading to the control room, as she entered the room a pedestal with an intricate red seal upon it could be seen, the seal stood out amongst the others as it seemed to be connected to all of them, seals of different color adorned the walls of the room some leading to there own pedestals. She swiped some of her blood upon it then pressed her hand in the middle of the seal, it quickly began to glow, before subsiding.  
The seals on the left and right side of the wall began to glow as well, good that means that the clones are doing their jobs, she pressed her hand on the red seal again.

Satisfied with what she had discovered threw the seal, the woman began to make her way out of the house, a brief smile appeared on her, the seals had held up, save for the growth of some plants around her home, it was intact.

When she reached the gates of her villa, the woman stopped a moment passed, before a small army of clones appeared around, one was to her right, twenty to her left, and twenty behind her. Save for the one to the left they all gave a head nodd, before quickly disappearing, each had a job to do, some would hunt for food, others would go to bring water, some would go shopping using the valuables she had, she would need to exchange some of them for the currency used nowadays, a few would explore the village and the last group would help to remove the vines and roots that had grown.

After she and her clone exited her villa, the woman looked up a the night sky, the stars were shining so brightly, crickets could be heard, the beasts in the forest of death seemed to be especially active tonight. She breathed in the cold night air, everything was so peaceful, so wonderful, she would do whatever it took to preserve this. A moment later both her and her clone disappeared.

* * *

Hokage tower

The aged old kage looked upon the village, it looked so peaceful, not many knew of the turmoil underneath it all. Things had been not gone well either for him or Konoha in the last few years. It started with the Kyuubi's attack six years ago, they had lost good people that day, the attack that the fox had launched tore threw the village and would have done much more damage had the Yondaime not stopped it. A sad smile crossed his face, the young kage had made the ultimate sacrifice for his village, barely in office and already making the ultimate sacrifice.

The loss of the Yellow Flash had been another blow for Konoha, one greater than the loss of shinobi lives, the Yondaime had beaten an army before he could do it again. The Hyuuga incident followed swiftly, whether it was the boldness of Kumo or whether they believed Konoha weak with the loss of the Yondaime, they had decided that is worth attempting to kidnap the young heiress, to add the bloodline to their ranks. What they attempted to do to a child was beyond words. Unfortunately he still needed to make peace with Kumo and had to make a sacrifice.

Konoha had been involved in small war shortly after the Kyuubi attack. Some of the smaller villages had been more aggressive towards Fire country, making raids into the land. While most had stopped when leaf nin arrived and began guarding the border in larger numbers, two had continued their attacks and began to use bandits to add to their numbers, war broke out after that.

With those killed and wounded in the Kyuubi's attack, those needed to guard Konoha and fulfill their current obligations, their numbers for the war had been stretched thin. Young shinobi had been thrown into the thick of fighting. The border had been littered with bodies from both sides.

Konoha needed the peace treaty with Kumo, with it signed, the two smaller villages were pushed back and soon made peace giving large settlements for it, one of the villages had been disbanded and Konoha had taken what they could from it.

Now the most recent issue was with the Uchiha, the clan was dissatisfied with their current position, many of the villagers still viewed them with suspicion after the Kyuubi attack, his old teammates viewed them with suspicion and had taken steps to isolate them. He had attempted to negation and find a better way, but it all seemed for not, as the clan make seemed too far gone to make any sort of deal. He hoped that it would not come to blows, but with the recent news it appeard that blood would almost certainly be spilled. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a voice from behind him.

" Ah young monkey or should I call you old monkey now? "

The age old kage quickly turned around and almost had a heart attack at who he saw in his office.

" Have you forgotten me young monkey? " the woman asked a small devilish smile on her face.

Sarutobi fealt as if his heart had jumped in his throat, forgotten her, how could he? here in his office in full battle gear stood what many believed to be the strongest kunoich and fastest woman to ever walk the elemental nations, called the best that Konoha had, her only real opponent for the title was his former student Tsunade.

The woman's armour looked like it did when he last saw her, small scratches could still be seen upon it, battle marks that she wore with pride, her icy blue eyes that where said to freeze people in there tracks, six whiskered marks upon her face. The woman had managed to defeat Madara Uchiha in his prime and had fought Hashimara on even ground. barely losing to him, here and now in his office garbed in full battle gear stood Naruko Uzumaki.

" You seem surprised, I did say that I would eventually return, while away I had time to think about an old conversation with wood boy "

" Conversation? " He asked still shocked at seeing her.

" Yes I decided that wood boy was right after all, and as such I will become Hokage, you can announce your retirement again old monkey, hand over the hat and tell the village that a fifth hokage has been chosen."

If this day seemed a normal one, he had a feeling that this night would be a long and troublesome one.

* * *

Naruko was quickly making her way towards her old apartment soon she would meet her other self, well other version of her self, this time around this Naruko would have someone to teach and be there for her growing up. She regretted not being able to awaken earlier but the sacrifice would be worth it, she would make it worth it.

Her icy blue eyes seemed to melt as her thoughts drifted to her friends, to the good times she had with them, to the missions they had gone on, and then to the war, and how badly it had gone.

She could still remember as if it had occured only days ago, the battle with the Madara clone and the Edo Tensei Madara. The battle had been brutal, and the Shinobi alliance had taken staggering losses during the fight. She remembered her friends and comrades dying. She remembered Kurama's sacrifice and the suicide attack they had used. Madara's reaction to her attack had made it all worth. His plan would never succeed with her last move, the Biju would be gone from their world.

Perhaps it was because they were so similar, that both the Madara clone and Edo Madara both used their wretched eyes techniques on her, the result was not what anyone would have expected. Her body felt as she was sinking in water, slowly being dragged to the bottom of the ocean, she could see the attack work, Kurama leaving her body and both the clone and Edo Madara's bodies being affected by the attack. Naruko smiled her last thought where _finaly got the bastards._

She had hoped and expected to meet her parents again, on a grassy field and they would welcome her to the afterlife, what she received was being poked with a stick and people attempting to steal her sandals. In hindsight that had been her mistake believing that things would end so easily._ No rest for the wicked, oh how true those words are._

She didn't know what had happened to her, she was convinced that only death awaited her, after meeting her would be robbers and exploring the area she was in she came to the conclusion that she was alive.

If the Fourth Shinobi War had been a short bloody series of great battles, then the Warring States period, had been a long series of bloody battles, where shinobi discovered new ways to kill themselves.

Living threw that brutal period had honed her skills and abilities more so them before, her thoughts went to the young Madara she had met, she had beaten him in his prime but Hashirama stopped her killing blow, he wouldn't let her kill his friend.

As much as she hated the Uchiha clan not all were monsters, back then they were in great numbers and could scatter to the winds to lay low, it was better to have them all in one place. And worse was that they were needed to help build Konoha, she gritted her teeth at that, she ended up siding with Tobirama more often than not when it involved that clan.

Being able to fight Hashirama in his prime had humbled her greatly, the chakra Kurama had left her, gave her a devastating advantage add her sage mode and she quickly made a name for herself in that period, only for Hashirama to counter it and go beyond what she had with his skills, the man was a force to be reckoned with, that the history books did little to speak off.

He had his own sage mode, his use of wood release was far more then what she had thought possible, she shivered when she remembered his attacks, wood dragons, wood projectiles, wood barriers, his wood clones had torn threw her shadow clones with such ease, if her shadow clones where impressive his woods clones made them look like a child's toys.

The man was good at taijutsu, ninjutsu, could fight with a blade and a multitude of other weapons, was good at seals, thanks to his chakra control he could almost instantly detect genjutsu, while he never created something similar to Tsunade's super strength techniques or her regenesis technique, he had created other that where impressive.

It wasn't that she was far weaker then him, she had spent most of her life fighting S class threats, she had lost the fight but it had been a close call, she had refused to use killing blows, throwing a sage powered rasenshuriken at the future first Hokage was not something she wanted to be known for. With her growth over the years, she was certain that now she had a good chance of defeating him.

She grimaced when she remembered how she had instinctively used a rasengan, and soon she was known for that attack. That would mostly likely hurt this version of her father's reputation.

Naruko arrived at her old apartment building and walked up the stairs to her old apartment. Soon she would meet a younger version of herself and things could be changed for the better.

She stopped in front of the door to the apartment, her heart racing a mile a minute, she carefully knocked on the door a few times, at this hour she was certain her younger self was inside. She arched an eyebrow when she got no response, she was certain things had played out in a similar fashion as in her dimension. The seals inside her house had picked up Kurama's chakra so the attack must have still happened.

The people she had " questioned " confirmed the presence of a girl who was the container. They would be punished soon enough for revealing classified information.

As she prepared to enter the apartment using shunshin, she thought of the past when last time, when it looked like history would repeat itself, with Konoha and the Uchiha, her being powerless to stop it, she decided to make her own plans to change things later on.

No one would truely belive her that she was from a different dimension, and even if they did she doubted Hashirama would act and kill the Uchiha clan, Madara gaining future knowledge was out of the question as well.

Things seemed to follow a certain pattern and she could change very little of it, the Senju and Uchiha would still create Konoha, Hashirama would still marry Mito Uzumaki, Kazuzu still attacked Hashirama and ran away. It seemed that the world had found ways to keep her away from some events. She had been present when Konoha was founded, but had been away when Kazuzu attacked, when Madara defected and Kurama was sealed.

She soon realised that very little could be changed then and decided that since everyone seemed to have some sort of long term plan she would make one herself. It had taken her years to and countless nights lost spent on working on her own plan, until she was satisfied and began to prepare for everything. She had spent a few years on the road to gather everything she would need and prepare things.

Meeting her clan and spending time with them, learning about her clan from them and seeing Uzu before its destruction had been one of the happiest periods of her life.

When Hashirama began to capture the biju she had aided him fighting against them, no matter how saddened and angry had been at the time, she had insisted that the seven tails be given to Uzu, only to discover that Hashirama had offered them the eight tails but was refused by the Uzumaki clan, claiming that they didn't need or desire such a thing.

To say she was shocked and flabbergasted was an understatement, she had at least tryed to convince them to strenghen there defences as people would soon attack becouse of there seals and the need for stronger ones to hold the biju within hoasts.

Jiraya's teachings about seals had aided her greatly and with Mito's and the Uzumaki clans training she had pushed beyond and created a few new seals that would have made her parents and Jiraya weep.

She had laid the ground work for her plan and would use it later, one grave concern had been to find other summoning contracts, the toads betrayal had still hurt her dearly, but with them teaching her sage made and Jiraya's teachings about them during her training trip she didn't truly needed them anymore, she could teach others what they had taught her, it would just be more difficult, there realm would have made learning sage mode easier but not impossible in other places.

A great deal of her plans relied on her younger self, this wasn't Naruko's true world, she knew that back home the chances of the shinobi system surviveing was slime with the loses they had taken, and even then the smaller villages would have the perfect time to strike at the great five. With Kurama sealed inside of her Naruko would be in the middle of events to come and she would be prepared.

Naruko quickly sunshined into the apartment expecting to find a younger version of herself, only to stare wide eyed at what she saw, mouth hanging open in shock. There in the middle of her old apartment stood two child versions of her parents. Naruko knew that because of her arrival in this dimension there was a chance that she would not be born normaly in this dimension but she stilled held out hope.

As she looked at the two, she could see how similar they were to her parents yet still different. Both had wisker marks on the cheeks.

The two where holding hands and looking at her, the boy held a knife in one hand while holding on to his sister with the other, he had there father's spiky blond hair and tan skin, there mother's violet eyes, his looks where more of there father but the build of his face was that of there mother. The girl had long red hair like there mother, her skin tone was much lighter then her brothers, blue icy eyes stared at her, that reminded her of her father, the girls jaw line was similar to that of there father as well, she even had the chubby cheeks as there mother, though not as much.

All in all she looked like a young version of her mother. She remembered the photos she had seen of her mother from when she was younger. What amused her was that she was holding a spoon in one hand while holding her brother's hand with the other. _A spoon? I'm being threatened with a spoon?! Well, at least now I could say that I've been threatened with a spoon now. Besides the legendary swords from the hidden mist village, and surviving bijudamas thrown my way._

" Who are you? what do you want? " The boy asked, as he glared at her.

She knew that look in his eyes, it was the look she had when she had been a small child, years of glares and harsh words had done the same to her, she had slowly adopted a mask and overtime could barely tell the real her from the mask, only a few had managed to see threw it.

Naruko tapped into Kurama's chakra to sense the two better, her eyes widened at what she felt, they were both containers, what had this version of their father done she asked herself, how would they be able to make Kurama whole again? The extraction had worked with her because her father was already dead. It wasn't known if it could work without killing anyone.

The thought of two containers also threw more things into the loop, Akatsuki could come after either of them to accomplish their goals. They could send two teams at once.

Though now, she had always desired siblings, and now in a weird way she had them, for better of for worse.

" Pack your things, you're coming with me " she told them,

The children looked shocked, the boy spoke " no why should we? you still haven't told us who you are ? ". The girl still looking at her waved her spoon " yeah, were not going anywhere "

" Child I have been threatened with many things, but never with a spoon, that is a first for me" she couldn't resist, her mother had hated the nickname, she wondered how the girl would react " are you deadly with a spoon tomato – chan ? " she asked.

The small girls face darkened, a shadow seemed to form behind her, her brother had let go of her hand and had a panicked look on his face, oh she definitely takes after mother. " What did you say? " She asked in a sickly sweet voice one she knew all to well, it was cute but she needed to nip this early on, she simply looked in the girls eyes and flashed a bit of her chakra scaring the little girl.

The twins looked taken aback by her now and had taken a few steps back, the girl still had the spoon in her hand " Well are you going to throw it or not little red? " Naruko asked. The girl's face seemed to go threw a miriad of emotions before she suddenly spoke " Don't underestimate me dattebane " she yelled before throwing the spoon directly at Naruko.

_Good aim_, Naruko quickly grabbed the spoon that was fast approaching her forehead and threw the spoon back. It imbedded itself in the wall behind the girl._ Hmm perhaps I should try a different approach._

The twins blinked both had seen the spoon heading towards the woman before it vanished they weren't sure what had happened.

Naruko took a few steps forward and the twins took a few steps back, she stopped and knelt in front of them, revealing more of her face " Little red look at my face " she noticed the girl simply stare at her, " Now look at your brothers face", she could all but see the wheels turning in the girls head, " now look at your face ", the girl used the window in the room to do so  
" And now back to me ".

She noticed that both were now looking in a new light unsure what to say. Finally the girl spoke up " you look a bit like brother and I " the girl gulped " Are you our mommy? "

That line had Naruko shaken and it was only her training that kept her jaw off the floor. This was something that she taken as a possibility in meeting her younger self and had a plan to deal with it but seeing the twins had shaken her and she had forgotten it.

" No" the children became saddened at that , " but we are related " and suddenly the two perked up " My name is Naruko Uzumaki " she motioned to them, the girl spoke up first " My name is Mito Uzumaki " she said with a smile on her face, _of course they would name her that, heck I probably would have been named that as well if things had been different,_ she smiled at the girl " My name is Naruto Uzumaki " the boy spoke, well no surprise there, the name did come from the perverts book after all.

" Why do you want us to come with you? " Naruto asked, " For the Uzumaki clan" the childrens eyes widened at that " family meant everything, and you if things went as I predicted you two may be the last of our clan "

" We have a clan? she asked with exuberance, Naruto looked interested as well, was I this much of an energy bunny when I was young? " Wait! what do you mean we may be the last? " Mito asked.

" Yes we have a clan. It was respected and feared because of our skill with seals, it should be taught in history class at the academy in later years. But we can talk more about it later at your new home, "

The twins still seemed to be reluctant " I will also be training you two, you do want to get stronger? " Naruko asked.

" Damn straight brother and I are gone fight it out for the title of hokage dattebane ! " Mito yelled raising her arms up fists closed, _yep definitely takes after mother, perhaps the boy takes after father a bit more, she looked at him, being an older brother could have made him more serious._

" Ma ma ma nee-chan I think I'll let you wobble around a bit before I take the title dattebayo!" he said with a smirk, _or maybe he has mother's personality as well._

In response, Mito clenched her fist and asked the boy with closed eyes and a pleasant smile on her face " I don't think I heard you nii-chan want to repeat that please? "

The boy slowly backed away and with a terrified look on his face, _is this how things went with mother and father ?_ Naruko thought.

" I um asked if you're really strong " he said pointing at Naruko, Mito whirled around and looked at her as well " Hey yeah are you ? do you know any cool jutsu? " she asked

Naruko smiled " Well I thought Hashirama and did well so I think I'm pretty strong yes " Both childrens eyes widened comicly " You what? " they both shouted, shock evident on their faces.

"... but that's impossible... he.. you.. he lived a long time ago when Konoha was founded " Naruto began and Mito quickly continued " yeah that would mean you really old lady "

Naruko ruffled there hair, faster then they could see her move, " I was here when Konoha was founded " she quickly placed a finger over there mouths, " As to how I'm still young I used a combination of seals to enter a sort of hibernation that would keep me young and fit while the years passed, I did say that our clan where skilled with seals didn't I ? a lot can be done with them."

She already knew what they wanted to ask " As to why I entered that state, that is something personal "

" Are you stronger than the old man? " Naruto asked, " When I last saw him that young monkey was 13 years old " the twins couldn't even imagine the old man being so young or someone even stronger than him.

" How about we go talk to him? I have a clone there already " the two looked puzzled, a clone? " a solid clone, and a special one that I created " she said guessing what they thought.

The two nodded and Naruko quickly grabbed them and then used a sunshin to exit the apartment and began making her way towards the hokage tower, neither of the twins noticed the clones that began to pack their belongings.

" What do you mean? " the Sandaime asked, he still couldn't belive the woman was here, everything about her was as he remembered, her stance, the presence she had, the chakra she released felt identity.

" Just what I said, I will become the Godaime Hokage, wood boy told me that I had the will of fire and what it took to become Hokage, that he wouldn't be surprised if one day the hat may end up in my lap" she snorted " he was an idiot " she looked at the floor for a few seconds before looking at the Sandaime again " How did he die ? "

The Sandaime sighed before his face took a saddened look " He used a great deal of chakra to heal our troops, and even our allies troops, and died of chakra exhaustion after a battle "

Naruko smilled for a brieth moment " I figured the idiot would die that way, helping others, him dieing in battle would have taken the other kages teaming up and even then he could have stood on even ground with them " the Sandaime nodded and smiled, his old teacher had fought the biju and had massive amounts of chakra, he would have lived if he had not insisted on saving as many of there troops lives as he did.

" What about water boy? " the old kage looked at her again, she fondly remembered how Naruko would often found new nicknames for Tobirama, and Hashirama would roar in laughter at the two when they began to bicker, as much as the two seemed to agree with each other on many things it seemed that they took some sort of pleasure in stepping on each others toes.

One particular memory stood out, his old team had just finished a rather brutal training session with there teachers and Naruko arrived to discuss something with Hashirama, only for her to look at Tobirama and ask him if he had that look on his face because he was constipated, he remembered seeing Hashirama roar with laughter and his other sensei glare at Naruko.

" He died in the first great ninja war fighting a special force from Kumo who had already killed the Nidaime Raikage and was after us, they where pseudo jinjuriki and had stole some of the best weapons Kumo had. He sacrificed himself to ensure our retreat, and made me Hokage. "

Naruko nodded her head before speaking again, Looks like the little monkey managed to reach the top of tree, congratulations, she said giving him a small smile, something the old kage new was rare.

" I take it the fourth died against the Kyuubi ? " she asked

The old kage nodded " How did you know that ? " he asked

" I visited the newly created valley after there battle between Hashirama and Madara and know how the Kyuubi's chakra feels like, the seals around my house picked up on it, I figured Mito would eventually have to pass the Kyuubi onto someone else and that would be the perfect time for an escape attempt. "

The old kage nodded his head, he knew Naruko was close to Mito Uzumaki, and had helped to look over the seals used to lock away the biju.

His old sensei Tobirama had explained to him why Naruko had dissapeared after he had asked him about it, many of her nightmares seemed to be occuring and she couldn't stop them, Madara's defection and the subsequent battle, the unending wars, the creation of the biju hoasts, that many viewed as weapons of mass destruction, even how the other nations seemed to set there sights on the Uzumaki clan.

She had tried to end the wars but failed, she tried to kill Madara when she was young but was stopped by Hashirama and warned him not to trust Madara, she warned the Uzumaki clan of the looming threat and wanted to shove one of the higher bijus down there throat. The Uzumaki clan had declined the biju Hashirama had offered, they wheren't arrogant about there strength but simply refused it, a mistake perhaps on there part, as later Uzu had been destroyed out of fear of there seals and longevity, they could be far better hoasts and the other nations believed they would eventually hunt and capture there biju.

He could still remember the day he had received the eagle asking for aid to be sent from the Uzumaki clan, little Kushina had arrived in the village not long ago. He had prepared a force to be sent to aid them only for disaster to strike, Iwa, Kumo and Kiri had launched simultaneous attacks on Fire Country heading towards Konoha's territory, Kiri attacking from the East by sea, Kumo from North – East and Iwa from North – Weast. The battles had been brutual, the attack on the Uzumaki clan sparked the second great war, as soon the other nations either joined willingly or were dragged into it.

He had lead the troops to aid Uzu, even Danzo believed that aid should be sent to the Uzumaki, he had sent Danzo to deal with Kiri, Koharu do deal with Iwa and Homura to deal with Kumo.

By the time he and his group had broken threw the resistance sent there way it was already to late and Uzu lay in ruins the combined army had suffered casualties but they had managed to accomplish there goal and only a part remained behind while the rest retreated. With there objective secure the alliance had fallen apart within moments.

The second war would drag on for many more years and would lay the seeds for the third, the Land of Frost and Hot Springs had suffered greatly as Kumo marched threw it to be closer to Uzu for there attack, a part of Iwa had managed to join in the attack on Uzu marching threw the Land of Hot Springs as well. It was in this war that his old students had gained their reputation as the Sannin.

She had warned people of what she saw on the horrizon but many chose to ignore it or had a hard time believing such things could occur. He could understand this, he had managed to change a few things and made preparation only because he had the damn hat, he wondered if his old sensei would have chosen her if she had been around during the first war.

As he looked at her, he knew the woman had the strength to be a kage, though time had passed her reputation still remained, she had experience leading troops, had been at the founding of Konoha and had aided the Shodai during the early days of his rule. She would need to be brought up on the more recent events, but she was by far the only true candidate for the position he had. Jiraya had the strength but not the desire, Tsunade was the same, his old friend Danzo had the desire but lacked the strength of a kage, oh he had skill but his injuries would make him the weakest of all the kages. This didn't include Danzo's desire to turn all shinobi into emotionless killing machines, no she was the best choice for the title.

" You have managed to lead to village well Hiruzen but you retired once when you realised you had someone to entrust the future to and old age had crept up on you, only returning to your position after the death of your successor, retire once more for many have seen fit to trample on your words "

He furrowed his eyebrows at her words and noticed how she referred to him now " What do you mean? " He asked with steel in his voice.

" I sent clones threw out the village and overheard a few of your shinobi talking about demons, when asked they were more than happy to tell in part of the village the where they were located, the building and even the apartment number. I'm curious what would have occured if an enemy shinobi had discovered this", she shook her head "why are the identities of the curent jinjuriki revealed and the former aren't ? "

Hiruzen felt his blood boil at her words before he forced himself to calm down " I will need to know who those shinobi where ".

" They have already been dumped at the Torture and Interogation facility " she told him.

" It was the desire of the Yondaime that they be seen as heroes for containing the beast, though sadly the people would not accept this and I passed an S class law to prohibit them for speaking about what they contained, make no mistake I will punish those who broke the law "

Naruko sighed " You decided to honor a dying man's wish and gambled the childrens future on the villagers, the same villagers who where probably still mourning there dead " she shook her head " and now look at the result they willingly break your law and sell the children out to whoever intimidates them even a tiny bit, are you sure there identities aren't know by the other villages ? "

" Yes I am "

" This only adds to my point Hiruzen, you should retire the shinobi do not respect or fear you anymore if they willingly break S class laws what about the rest ? what else are they doing behind your back? "

He flared his chakra and killer intent and glared at the woman but she seemed unfazed, before  
a wake of killer intent washed over him, he knew Naruko say right but it was still insulting to him, for the villagers to begin to act this way to risk so much, he had made mistakes, on of which was turning a blind eye to some of Danzo's actions and allowing him to deal with the darker side of the village and now it seemed that he finally could see the results of his actions, he had gotten softer and many had seen it as an act of weakness.

The killing intent in the room dropped when the door to the office opened and in walked Naruko with two small children.

" Old man " the two chipped.

Hiruzen smilled " Naruto – kun, Mito – chan " he looked at the Naruko that he had been talking to and she quickly took a few steps back while this new one stepped forward taking her place. A clone! He should have known to woman was a master at using clones and even managed to create new ones.

" Old this lady says that she's our relative " Naruto began " Yeah and that we have a clan " and Mito continued. " Why didn't you tell us about our clan ? " the both asked.

The old kage let out a small breath he knew that this conversation would have occured eventually, he didn't get a chance to speak as Naruko began before him " It was done to protect you " the two gave her a curious look

" You were given the name to have a connection to the clan since a young age, however seeing as how there are no other clan members in Konoha nor are you old enough the rest was kept secret to help keep you safe. I already told you that the clan was feared if our enemys found out that two young Uzumaki children were here they would have sent assassins after you. Orphans are often given names in honor of fallen allies this way people simply assumed this was the case with you two, belive it or not there is safety in anonymity. "

The two children looked from Naruko to the old Kage who simply nodded at her words. Then the two looked at each other before Mito spoke " Do you know who are parents are? "

The old kage sighed, this night was getting worse and worse for him, he had lied to them before and killed him on the inside, they looked like young versions of their parents, he had hoped to reveal it much later.

" What Naruko said is also true for your parents, they had a lot of enemys and until you are older and stronger I can't tell you who they are " he finished in a somber tone, however the look of betrayal in the childrens eyes felt as if someone had stabbed him in the heart.

Naruto glared at him " So all this time you knew who our parents were? "

Naruko gently squeezed the childrens shoulders " Every ninja makes enemies both from outside the village and within, and those enemies often stupe so low as to attack there children as revenge, if he had told your there names and you mentioned them to someone else then there was a chance that there enemies would have discovered you and you would have become a target. He has already told you that he had plans to tell you everything when you were older. While I would have done things differently he did what he could given the circumstances. With the Kyuubi attack the village forces suffered casualties, destroyed buildings and low morale due to the death of there leader, he had to retake his position, bury his wife " both the childrens eyes widen at that " and find a way to keep Konoha strong as it's enemys could have used this chance to invade."

Mito smiled and looked at the old kage " Ok , I guess, it still hurts's that you didn't trust us old man "

" You can keep a secret tomato-chan? " Naruko asked with disbelief in her voice. Mito seemed to explode at that. " Oi I'm going to kick your ass dattebane ! ". Naruko quickly ruffled her hair in response getting a scowl and pout from Mito and smile from Naruto and the Sandaime.

Naruto suddenly seemed to jolt as if he remembered something important. " Hey old man is she strong? " he asked pointing at Naruko, Mito looked interested as well at this.

" Yes Naruto she is very strong, at one point she was called the strongest kunoichi and fastest woman alive, in fact many belive that she is still the strongest kunoichi to have ever walked our world. " Naruto and Mito stared at him with wide eyes. " Wow really? she said she fought Hashirma Senju and Madara Uchiha " he asked.

The old kage smilled at him " She did Naruto, she was here when Konoha was founded and in many ways she is actually older than myself. " Again both children's eyes widened almost comicly.

" I am strong enough that I will be taking that hat and become the Godaime Hokage. " Naruto and Mito's jaw opened and their eyes bugged in comidic fashion, before they both exploded.

" What ?! But old man nee-chan/ni-chan and I where going to fight it out for the hat! " Naruko smiled at how in sync the two where.

Hiruzen pondered that for a few moments before sighing " It is true Naruto – kun, Mito – chan she will become the Godaime Hokage "

Both Mito and Naruto simply stared at him before a voice spoke from behind them " It's been a long night and you two should get some rest and see your new home " the old kage quickly looked at her when he heard that.

The Naruko clone that had been in the back of the room came forward and grabbed the children before disappearing in a burst of speed before the children could say anything else.

" How did you know about my wife? " The Sandaime asked. " I noticed the picture on your desk and saw how you looked at it, it is the same as my own when I look at the picture of my loved one. " She replied.

" You decided to accept I thought it would have taken a bit more before you relented "

" You are right in that I retired when I thought I found someone I could entrust the future to, I realised that my time had passed and someone else needed to carry the torch " he sighed " I have made many mistake during my reign, and questioned if I did the right thing on a few occasions. "

" In one year I will take over in full force, but I will punish those who break the law in the village and those who willingly ignore the laws, in this one year I will catch up on what changes have occured in the world and I will travel threw the nations to remind the world of my name"

The third hokage nodded " I will start compiling on the situation on the world and the village, but I don't recommend traveling the nations "

She shook her head " I'l travel around our borders with the stronger countrys, do missions in the smaller and neutral countrys, a few S ranks." The third nodded once more, having her seen threw fire country would spread the rumors of her return,_ if the border patrols see her they would be able to confirm her return to there villages, a few bandit exterminations near the border here and there, especially if it coincides with a patrol group would do well._

" I will eventually tell them of there burden, though later when things have calmed down more, there training shall be interesting " she said in a tone that sent chills down his spine, it was the same tone that the Nidaime used before a particularly brutal training session.

" You would have still made a claim for the title had I refused " the tone of his voice made it clear that it was not a question

" Yes, I would have gone to the public and the clans, this way things will not escalate and be dragged out " she responded in an even tone, not batting an eyelash.

He nodded, when Naruko reached the door and touched the handle she spoke once more.

" Enjoy retirement again, help raise the young generations and spend time with your family young monkey you have earned your rest " she turned around and gave him a rare smile " the burden of leadership lies with me from now on. " She exited the room and he could see his Anbu guards tied up outside his office with seals on them.

The old kage took a moment to breath before he began to make his way towards his tied up Anbu to untie them,_ I don't know how the Uchiha clan will take this, it may just escalate things,_ but now though he did feel as if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders, mostly likely it will be better when I take the hat off one last time.

* * *

Naruko stood on top of a tower in Konoha and smiled once more, it was time to give Konoha a wake up Uzumaki style, they needed to know who had returned. She inhaled some air, and began to focus, she had to be sure of this. She exhaled, and a pillar of light quickly burst from her shooting towards the sky before and explosion seemed to occurs and a wave washed over the village. There it's done, from ninjas the lowest civilian will feel that, a shame I had to make the old monkey's night more troublesome.

She waited a few moments before she was quickly surrounded by leaf nin, Anbu and some of the Uchiha police force, she stood there, allowing them to get a good look at her before she took off in a burst of speed._ The're still too early to match me in speed._

* * *

When she returned home she found the twins in the kitchen with a clone of her's, she quickly sat down on the chair next to the table.

The twins looked at her " Are you going to be Hokage? " Mito asked, she simply nodded. Naruto continued for his sister " We always thought the old man would stay on until we fought it out for the hat "

" He is old, you call him that don't you? " They both flinched " Yeah but we don't mean it likes that we um " Mito begann.

" Don't worry I know what you mean, but you shouldn't worry, to much, if you get strong enough and have what it takes to become hokage you can take the had from me, I will be training you to be as strong as you can be and then to go beyond that. You can still meet the old monkey perhaps even more than before and besides getting training from one of the strongest kunoichi in the world doesn't sound appealing to you ? "

They both grinned after that. " so what are we eating? " Mito asked looking at the Naruko clone.

" I have traveled all over the Elemental Nations, and have gathered recipes and ingredients from all over, " she motioned towards the cupboards " but there is only one true food of the gods. "

She looked at both of them and in a hushed tone of voice said " Ramen "

" What!? " They both asked " Yes you're eating ramen but not just any ramen, one made with the recipe and ingredients from Uzu "

" Will you tell us about the place? " Naruto asked, she nodded " Later though, best not to talk while eating ramen " the twins nodded vigorously as the Naruko clone began to serve them their dinner.

* * *

" Ah man that was great " Naruto said as he padded his stomach " You said it nii-chan" Mito said doing the same thing as her brother.

" I hope you enjoyed it " Naruko said looking at the two

" Yeah it was the best I can't wait to have more " the twins chirped together.

" Well that the last ramen you'l have for a while " she told them in a serene tone, the twins quickly palled. " What? " they asked in a panicked shaky tone of voice.

" Well I'll be taking over your training that includes what you eat, don't worry you can still have some from time to time, and I'll even teach how to prepare some of the recipies. "

" But but but it's so good " Mito told Naruko looking at her with shaky hands.

Naruko nodded " I'm glad you agree, now off to bed with you ".

They stopped in front of a door, " Your things are in here, you can decide tomorrow who gets the other room" the twins looked at her with wide eyes again " We each get a room ?! " Naruko nodded at this. " The bathroom is right next to it, I'l have a clone wake you up tomorrow and show you the way to the academy from here. "

" Ano do we have to get separate rooms? We lived together since we were little " Mito asked holding her brother's hand. _Damn they look so cute._

" You can continue to share the same room, but eventually you will want your own room, especially when you grow older." She quickly ruffled their hair " Now off to bed with you little ones. "

The twins took turns going to the bathroom and changing before long they were both in bed snuggled next to each other.

" What do you think nee-chan? "

" She seems ok, and the old man is giving her the hat, she even told us we have a clan "

" Yeah this place is better than what we had, and she said she'l train us "

" Yeah and she likes ramen " Naruto nodded at that.

" Goodnight nii-chan " she said snuggling closer to him.

" Goodnight nee-chan " and Naruto snuggled closer to her.

* * *

Naruko exited the control room of her home, almost everything was up and running, barely a few functions weren't yet active but would be by morning.

She quickly made her way towards another room that had just as much protection as the control room, once she entered it she quickly looked threw it, everything was just as she left it, books, scrolls and maps. Her eyes fell on a set of scrolls entitled Hope, Rebirth and Regenesis.

Naruko rather quickly opened the one entitled Hope and retrieved a map from there, and placed it on one of the walls and began looking over it. She smiled looking over the locations once more. Oh yes she had quite a few locations to visit and now, now the game was afoot.

* * *

Review away

Constructive criticism or pointing out a possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.


	2. Chapter 2 : Setting the pieces

**I do not own Naruto**, if I did Naruto would have seen the part were Obito helped mess up Kiri.

Talk now – normal talk

_What now_ – normal thoughts

**Speak** – biju talk

**_Listen_** – biju thoughts

**Chapter 2 : Setting the pieces**

As Naruko looked at the sleeping twins one word came to her mind_, cute!,_ the two were snuggled together, Mito with her head near her brother's throat and Naruto with his head on Mito's head. Naruko quickly used a small jutsu and created a ball of water in front of her, she separated the ball into two smaller one's, carefully using chakra to control the shape and to keep the water balls above her hands, next she used wind manipulation to lower the water's temperature.

Naruko proudly looked at the two water balls in front of her, they were good as a chakra exercises and for elemental manipulation. She looked at the balls again before she threw one towards each twin with a sadistic smile on her face.

Their reactions didn't disappoint her, the twins yelled, Mito shoved herself out of the bed onto the floor and was looking around the room frantically, Naruto jumped so high he almost reached the ceiling before he fell back on the bed.

" It's time to wake up, breakfast is ready " Naruto told them in a deadpan tone.

Mito looked at the nearby clock and her eyes bulged " It's 5:13! " she yelled, Naruto glared at her.

" Yes I let you sleep a bit more, don't worry it will not happen again."

" But we need our sleep! " Naruto yelled and Mito nodded her head.

" You can sleep in the afternoon"

" What?! But that's for babies! We're gone be ninjas we can't sleep in the afternoon" they both shouted. _their so in sync, I wonder if this extends to their battle tactics as well._

" Oh really? You're not babies? " they both nodded their heads defiantly, "you don't need an afternoon nap? " again they nodded their heads with the same defiant attitude. A small grin formed on her face " Very well " _let's see you keep that attitude after the real training starts._

" Well breakfast is still served so come down and eat, you'l have to leave much earlier then before as the trip from here to the academy is longer " she told them and left the room.

Naruto simply looked at his sister " I hate her " Mito nodded.

* * *

Naruko looked at the twins and handed them two small packages " Here take these "

" Um, what are these? " Mito asked, Naruko raised an eyebrow at her " Your lunch "

The twins looked at her in surprise, " You made these for us? " Naruto asked.

" Yes, you have a desert there and some snacks as well, remember to chew your food properly. Uh, no one has ever made something like this for you have they? " The twins shook their head. _So different yet so alike._

" We usually make them ourselves, or for each other, but that doesn't always work out well." Naruto told her looking at Mito who was staring at a wall with an innocent look on her face. _Ah so cute, it's like having my own amusement at home._

" Well go brush your teeth and you can expect more of these", she told them pointing towards their packed lunches. " I'l teach how to make different kinds of food later on. "

" My clone here" Naruko gestured to her clone " will show you the way to the academy", the twins nodded at that "don't tell anyone that you live with me yet"

" Why? " Mito asked

" It would be best if people didn't know about it just yet, remember our conversation about your parents? " The twins slowly nodded, as soon as they left the house the clone changed it's look now resembling a rather plain looking woman with brown hair, dark eyes and a normal skin tan, all in all she was the definition of plain.

Back at the villa Naruko made a dozen clones and sent them each to their tasks.

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage sat in his chair looking at the large stacks of paper in front of him, _Uzumaki-sama has certainly made her return know alright,_ _everybody felt the damn wave_. It was good that soon he wouldn't have to deal with this crap. He had been dealing all night with the complaints and chaos caused by her wave, some feared the Kyuubi had returned and quickly panicked, a few of the civilians ran around like headless chickens screaming that the Kyuubi had returned, _that was a pain to deal with._

Sending the Anbu to calm the people down and assure them that nothing bad had occured, and punishing the few idiot shinobi who had been running around just as scared falling prey to the same mentality.

He had barely slept an hour last night, preparing documents that the Godaime would need, he still couldn't belive that there was one now, but it needed to be done. She had what it took to become Hokage, she had the necessary strength, though she was not as know to the civilians and the ninja population, many knew the tales of her exploits, even now storys where still told about The Lioness whose roar crumbled mountains and broke the will of men.

Many kunoichi strived to come close to the level of Golden Darkness, her return would generate enough support in Konoha for her to take the hat, if he attempted to hold onto it he would be just as bad as Danzo, and Konoha could not afford a civil war.

She had been there when Konoha was founded and dealt with the clan leaders and the would daimyos of the time, the Warring States period had been brutal and dealing with people who wanted to stab you in the back with a smile on their face was far to common, surving that made the present time seem a lot easier.

He gazed towards the Hokage Monument, and looked at the Yondaime's face, he remembered when he first meet Minato, the boy had the same icy blue eyes though his were not yet as cold as hers. He had suspected that perhaps the two were related, something that proved to be correct, to a degree, he had managed to open a seal on her house before it locked down. That had surprised him, it implied either a strong blood conection or a very advanced seal that could detect even small traces of someone related to her by blood.

Minato had certainly proved his worth in the war and had managed to recreate one of her techniques, the rasengan, something that even now surprised him. _Who knows what he could have done given more time, and what a meeting between the two of them would have been like, the two fastest humans._

His gaze remained on the face of his first successor, while Minato being related to Naruko was a shock, the fact that Kushina was as well raised a few questions, their shared Uzumaki blood was his first guess. Kushina had visited the house with Mito-sama after her arrival in the village and numerous times after that in order to feel a connection to her clan, something he couldn't fault the girl.

He sighed, he would need to announce it soon then gather the clan heads and send a message to the daimyo to inform him as well.

He felt a small prick at the back of his neck and heard a voice from behind him " Your guard's down " his eyes slowly widen, he knew he had been caught off guard, _damn it, what are the Anbu doing nowadays?._

Naruko quickly took a seat in a chair in front of the Sandaime, he looked at her noticing that she wore the same armour as yesterday. " I'm going to need the training program for Anbu, there soft." He sighed, the fact that she was a natural at stealth didn't seem to matter to her.

" I take it there tied up in front of my office? " she nodded " with a passed out secretary. " He groaned at that, where his people so weak?

Naruko looked at the stacks of paper on the kage's desk, and raised an eyebrow at them, she quickly shoat the old kage a questioning look.

" Some of them are for you ", he told her pushing a small stack towards her, Naruko nodded and looked over them " while the rest are reports and other documents created by your act from last night."

" I simply desired to announce my return in a way that all would understand it, I belive everyone received the message." She told him in a polite tone of voice while reading the documents from earlier.

" Perhaps it would have been better if you did so in a way that did not cause such panic " he replied.

" And perhaps if everyone followed protocol things wouldn't have been so bad would they? whose fault was it that some of the shinobi, so called trained shinobi were running like normal civilians? " Naruko asked in an icy tone.

He rubbed his temples, it was true some of his trained shinobi had been running around like headless chickens, _just like some civilians_, the fact that chunins were among them was an ill sign, genin he could understand. " It " he began but never got to finish as she waved at him dismissively.

Naruko placed the documents she was reading on the kage's desk and made her to a map that hanged on one of the walls of the office. [1- see the link for the map]

The Sandaime looked at her as she seemed to analyze every detail " How accurate is this? " she asked, " it's the most recent " he replied. " I'm going to need a copy of it and of the shinobi map " he nodded, while the normal map included the borders and towns, the shinobi map showed the location of other hidden villages, fortresses of other countrys, and other points of interest for shinobi. The Sandaime opened one the drawers of his desk and pulled out a small scroll, " This one contains, the normal map of the continent and more detailed maps of the other countrys, I have a few anbu on sensitive missions, once they return I can give you a a more complete shinobi map."

Naruko turned her head towards the old kage and raised and eyebrow, " where did you send them ? "

" There were rumors of a country emerging from the chaos lands, but it quickly fell, the rumors were that it was a rogue shinobi that destroyed the country, mostly likely one from the great five. " _I wonder is that the country Sasori destroyed?_ " One team went to investigate in the heart of those lands while another went to the ones near the sea."

" I'm not that surprised that things haven't calmed down there, those lands gave birth to Raizen afterall " she said in a disgusted tone of voice. Hiruzen nodded at that, _that monster could not have died sooner._

" What's the situation with the Empire ? " she asked looking back at the map, Hiruzen scowled before answering. " Much worse then in your time, no one from the Elemental Nations is allowed to set foot there and there's a trade embargo. " The scowl did not leave his face as he continued. " We got lucky that one of their ships saved a few people from the land of sea after there ship was attacked by pirates, from what they gathered only a country called the Land of Demons is still holding out against the Empire, but even that information is five years old."

" What happened to make things worse? did Kiri attempt an invasion? " she narrowed her eyes at a portion of the map " or did Kumo?"

" Kumo wanted to invade, their agents were found and it was the last straw, they closed off everything after that, it's another point of conflict the lighting daimyo has with Kumo." Naruko nodded. _Good, things aren't too different in that regard_.

" I have to schedule a meeting with the clan heads soon and announce your return and ascension to the public your presence will be required then."

" Delay the meeting with the clan heads and the announcement for a few days, I want my clones to explore the village a bit more, two days will be enough " she said as she sat back down in the chair in front of the old kage.

" Very well, Konoha has changed a bit since your time it will take more time to properly brief you on everything those ", he said indicating the papers in front of Naruko " are just what I managed to gather in a few hours ".

" I'l need to know what other clans joined Konoha, what clans are still active and those who have been lost or left Konoha. "

" The last pages have information on the clans in Konoha at this time and the governing structure of Konoha "

Naruko raised an eyebrow at this " Governing structure ? how different is it from what Hashirama set things up ? "

The old kage noticed how she addressed the Shodai, " A few things changed during the wars and in between them that lead to the current structure. "

She seemed thoughtful for a few moments looking at the Sandaime, Naruko knew this was going to be a long story, she sighed before speaking " What is the current structure in Konoha and how did come to be? "

" It began with the death of Hashirama ... "

* * *

Uchiha Mikoto was not having a good day as she walked back to the Uchiha compound at a brisk pace her thoughts drifted to when it all started. Her family had just went to sleep and things were quiet in the compound when it started, a wave of chakra washed over Konoha, the entire compound came alive after that. Many feared that the Kyuubi had returned or that there was an attack on the village.

Between comforting her young son and helping to keep order in the compound she hadn't gotten much rest, her husband had quickly left to organise the police force and had only returned in the morning and quickly called a meeting with the elders to discuss the situation.

The one responsible as she was told was thought to have been a woman wearing read armour and had dark blond hair, the only blond woman who could do such a thing would have been Tsunade Senju who had left the village years ago, and her hair color was different.

The village had been in lockdown for the night and the gates only opened at dawn when things had settled down, the Hokage had sent word that there was nothing to threat over and then people should stay calm, her oldest son, Itachi, and other leaf nin had been stuck outside the village walls that night.

After making breakfast she had asked Itachi to take Sasuke to the academy so she could run a few errands, a small lie, _and Itachi mostly likely know's it._

Mikoto simply wanted to check on her late friend's children, she had no doubt they where her's, Mito looked so much like Kushina it was almost painful to look at her, but that was the only thing she could do, because of the suspicion the clan was under from the Kyuubi's attack, she couldn't get near them, she could only watch them from a distance and considering they lived so far apart she had to find creative reasons to go near them, a simple shopping trip here and there, yes going to that store to save 0,20 yen was worth it she had told Itachi when questioned what she had been doing in that part of the village at one point.

She had waited to see the twins leaving for the academy however as the minutes passed and she didn't see them she grew more worried, eventually she left, the twins had skipped classes before and she only hoped that it was the case now as well. She could ask her youngest if they attended class today, but that would be a difficult conversation to have especially if her husband or Itachi would be near.

She had hoped to for Sasuke to befriend the twins, she didn't ask him to do so as to not force things, her youngest was still naive and the last thing she needed was for him to approach the twins and ask them to be friends because his mother told him to. He was still too naive to handle things, Itachi would have approached things differently and taken his time, but he was far too old and high in rank to do so now.

What little hope she had of her youngest and the twins becoming friends had diminished over time as sadly her son seemed to follow the other children and shun the twins.

With these thoughts, Mikoto was making her way back to the compound, perhaps she could ask Sasuke if any of his classmates had missed class today, she just needed to be subtle about it and avoid asking when Itachi or her husband were near.

* * *

Kakashi let out a breath he had been holding, his mission had been a success and he had managed to rescue Princess Koyuki and escape the castle. The girl was cradled in his arms, having lost consciousness. Having regrouped with his team they proceeded to leave the country.

His thoughts drifted to why he was here, the ruler of snow had suspected his brother Doto of planning something and hired leaf nin to provide extra protection for his family, he had wanted the best, and the Hokage had sent him and his team.

Unfortunatly by the time they arrived in Snow a revolution had begun and it was all but over, Doto was far to entranched to remove from power, the man that contracted them for the daimyo asked them to save any members of the daimyo's family and Kakashi had managed to discover that the daimyo's daughter was still alive, she had been rescued by those still loyal to the old daimyo but there was still a group after her. He quickly made a plan and set it in motion, in the end he had managed to save the young princess, his team had secured a way out the country and provided small aid to the loyalist of the old daimyo.

The situation in Snow all in all was a nightmare and would remain so for years to come, Doto had managed to turn the small ninja force in snow to his side, had hired missing nin, and even convinced a few members of the country's army to switch sides. The country would most likely go into lockdown for the next few years until everything calmed down.

Their contractor had paid them more than enough to provide aid, using secret funds the old daimyo had given him for emergencies, he would have been duty bound to help the man in either case. The man had given them copies of the papers proving the princess claims to the throne and would contact them once he and more of the loyalist were organised.

The way back to Konoha would be difficult but not impossible he had been threw worse and survived, he would ensure that his team survived this as well.

He looked at the young girl in his arms again, a possible future daimyo, who knew what political games she could end up involved in, being forced to marry someone to gain the support needed to free Snow, assassins would soon be after her to ensure Doto's claim to the throne, others if they discovered her heritage would be after her hand in marriage to have a claim to Snow country.

The chances of the loyalist breaking Doto's hold was small now, the man was organised and he could still have a few hidden allies. Kakashi shook his head it wasn't his place to question such things he just needed to get the girl back to Konoha the Hokage would decide where she would be placed. He was glad to be going back home, at least there nothing so drastic had occured, it was still constant.

* * *

The meeting room of the Uchiha clan was dark save for a few torches that drove the darkness away, it was located underground and it was used only in the more dire situations, it is here that several men where found gathered around a table with several documents upon it.

" Are these report accurate? " asked one of the male figures, he had short grey hair and a small scar on his left jaw.

" Do you doubt your clan mates Yoshimitsu? " Fugaku asked, he had short, black hair that reached to his shoulders and onyx-coloured eyes, with visible creases below them. He wore the standard flak jacket, along with a black shirt with the Konoha Military Police Force symbol on the shoulders, shin-guards and a black, open-front apron with white diamonds on the bottom.

" Both of you calm down " Kengo Uchiha told them, he had long grey chin length hair.

" Do we know who this person could be? a missing nin?, or an Anbu, perhaps she is the Hokage's hidden ace in the sleave? " Maji Uchiha asked, he had dark-coloured eyes, as well as dark-coloured hair which framed a gaunt-looking face which was further accentuated by his mouth which naturally curled upwards.

" No we don't who she is, none of our men could see her face, it was dark outside and they only got her face's description from those who got a glimpse of it. " Fugaku answered.

" This changes things " Yoshimitsu spoke after a few brief moments.

" No it doesn't, this could just be a ploy by the Hokage to appear more powerful, the man must be getting desperate to do this. " Fugaku answered.

" Perhaps, but how could he fake that so many felt that wave of chakra, who could have so much? perhaps if the Hokage was in his prime, but even then I doubt it. "

" I belive I have an idea as to her identity. " Yoshimitsu began. " As you know my late older brother Kagami was friends with the Hokage, " that was true, Kagami had indeed been friends with the Sandaime and his death had hurt the clan, " the Hokage told him stories of a woman that resembled this one. " The others were giving him sceptical looks.

" Well who is she? " Kengo asked.

" Come now you already read about her in the history books. I belive her name is Naruko Uzumaki. "

" What? Have you gone senile Yoshimitsu? the woman has been dead for decades. " Maji told him.

" Don't be foolish her body was never found was it? And she matches the description doesn't she? "

" That would make her older the Hokage, that would mean she was here when Konoha was founded with Hashirama and Madara, she should be an old woman by now, and not look like she is in her prime. Even with the Uzumaki blood there isn't a way for her to be so young now. No she must be a fake someone who look's like her." Maji told him.

" And if she is the real one, does this change things? " Yoshimitsu asked.

" No it does not, things will proceed as planned, Madara fell before Hashirama who fell before an army, we will be the army to take her down as well, legends can die, and if she is real then we will kill this legend. " Fugaku spoke up receiving approving head nods from the others.

" Agreed. "

" Very well I can only hope this road does not lead us to ruin. "

" This road will lead us to victory. " Fugaku told him. _It must_

* * *

**Konoha, Naruko's villa**

The twins were sitting in the garden of their new home waiting for their training to start, both had eager looks on their faces.

" What do you think she'l teach us? Maybe a cool jutsu? " Mito asked.

" Maybe or maybe some kick ass fighting style " Naruto answered.

" Well I take you to are eager to start? "

" YES! " they both shouted.

" Good, I hope that you keep that attitude for a long time. Now today you're going to learn something extremely important that will help you tremendously in the future. "

" Is it a cool jutsu? " Mito asked. " Is it a super awesome fighting? " Naruto asked

" It's chakra control". Both the twins faces seemed to fall and they had a look on their faces like someone had just burned their homes down.

" What? " Mito half asked half shouted. " You said it was super important. " Naruto continued.

" It is my little knuckleheads. " " Oii oii! " they both shouted. " Now now calm down and listen, good chakra will allow to throw more awesome jutsu around and you'l be able learn more of them as well, good chakra control is essential for some of the advanced shinobi techniques later on. "

" Oh well when you put like that " Naruto told her.

" Yeah let's get started with chakra control " Mito shouted raising her fists in the air. _I wonder if they heard a thing after the part with throwing more awesome jutsu around. _

" Now before we begin you swear to me that you will not show off your abilities or go around telling other people what I teach you, understood? "

" Um, why? " Mito asked.

" Some of the chakra control exercises that I will teach are a bit to advanced for your colleagues, you have larger reserves than most children your age thanks to your Uzumaki blood so you can perform them other children do not and would only hurt themselves if they tried. Second is because certain things are related to the clan, they are our secrets, and must kept that way. "

" Why? " Naruto asked " If they can help other people why shouldn't we share it with them?"

" In a better world we would openly share things, but we are not there yet, and until then we will keep some secrets, I'm not saying you can't share any training tips, but some things are just for clan members. The clan did share some of our secrets with the great nations at the birth of the hidden village system and well that got us all but exterminated. In some cases they perverted our seals for their own purposes and began fearing us, Naruko shock her head, some things should remain a secret, you don't tell people everything because they may turn on you. The clans keep secrets because it gives's them and advantage and makes these people desired for certain jobs, this way they would always have a something that made them important, or at least had something valuablele. If people learned those secrets and could do them as well, then the clan's importance would disappear, why would there be need at all?

Some of our techniques cannot be used by other like I said before and others even if they used them they would not get the same results. While sharing secrets are seen as a proof of trust you do not always share everything. Did you understand any of that? "

" Yeah don't clan secrets. " Naruto answered.

" Good now swears it. And know that if you do, you won't just be endangering your self you be endangering your sibling as well, and the others", the twins eyed each other and then nodded,

" We swear it." The twins told her with a hand over here hearts.

" Good now, " she threw them each a kunai, " the first exercise involves you channeling chakra to your feet to walk on all kinds of different surfaces." Naruko quickly made her way up a tree and stopped when she was hanging from a branch by only using her feet.

" Wow that's awesome! " Mito had stars in her eyes.

" That's so cool! " Naruto had a twinkle in his eyes.

" Now first place your feet on the tree and calm down, don't let your emotions runs wild, you need just to right amount to stick to it, to much and you'l be blown off, to little and you woun't stick to it. Imagine your feet as empty vases in which you pour water, pour it slowly to cover every place. It's alright to take a running start if you have problems right now but later I'l want you to be able to do this by second nature."

An hour passed before Naruto managed to walk two steps up before falling. Mito decided to get a running start and managed to five steps up the tree before she was blown back.

" This is why it's very important to learn chakra control can you imagine what would have happened if you had attempted a jutsu and gotten similar results? " The twins paled at that.

After another hour passed with the twins making small improvements Naruko stopped them again " Here she threw them two round pieces of wood, " use those instead of the leaf for your normal chakra control exercise."

" Wait if this new exercise is better for chakra control then why do the old one? " Naruto asked.

" Simple because it does help your chakra control and it will help you improve your ability to concentrate on focusing on your chakra. "

" What'dya mean? " Mito asked with a confused expression on her face, Naruto had a similar one on his face as well.

" Simple my little knuckle heads, " the twins grew a tick mark at this, " while the tree walking exercise is a more advanced method of chakra control, knowing the leaf exercises makes it easier to learn. Some people prefer trial by fire and throw their students at the task. The leaf exercise's purpose is to help the students get acustomed to useing their chakra, chaneling it and concentrating on their chakra, this in turn would later give you a small advantage when learning the more advanced methods seeing as how the foundation is already built. That is what the academy is for, to help build a decent foundation on which more can be built later. "

" Really? it doesn't feel that great. " Naruto stated.

" Yeah, it's kind of boring. " Mito told her.

" Well you still need to learn the basics such as reading, writing, math, history and such, things that you would learn even if you weren't a shinobi, and amongst them are the other shinobi aspects, slowly however the curriculum changes to focus more on the shinobi aspects. Though once I take the hat I intend to change some things at the academy, what I have seen so far has not impressed me. "

" Will you add more cool stuff? " Mito asked.

Naruko gave her a small smile, _Kami I was like her at that age_. " Yes, I will add cool stuff, more stealth training, weapons practice, a program to help search for potential medic nins, mock missions and such. "

The twins seemed to have stars in their eyes. " That sounds so awesome they both shouted. "

" It's a start, and their will be more to it then that. Now use that piece of wood for the exercise and get to it, you need to do this for the next two hours got it?"

" HAI! " They both shouted.

An hour had passed and the twins had made good progress. Slowly their control was getting better and their ability to concentrate was as well.

" Alright, that's enough for now it's time to train something else"

" What? " Naruto asked

" Your mind"

" Our mind? " Mito asked

" Yes, you're going to learn to Shogi, solve puzzles, mazes and Sudoku. "

" Um, why? " Naruto asked.

" Becouse there are things to help your mind and stop you from being such little knuckleheads"

" Oii oii, were not knuckleheads. " Mito told her.

" So you say, you will learn to play these games because they help you develop a strategic mind set, shogi is all about thinking about victory in the long term, while the other stimulate your mind to find solutions to your problems, essential skills for some one who wants to be Hokage, unless you've changed your mind? " She asked looking at Mito than Naruto.

" No way! " The both told her.

" Good, it's important to be able to win a battle but not if it costs you the war, in life you need to think how your immediate choices will affect the future, the choices you make during missions could come back to bite you in the ass later. As Hokage many lives will depend on your choices. "

" Really? " asked Mito

" Yes, you didn't think that being Hokage was all about strength and getting acknowledged as the strongest did you? "

" Noo " Mito told her with and embarrest look on her face, Naruto had a similar look on his face as well.

" Well then let's begin with the easier things like puzzles and masses, oh and don't worry you'l be doing a little bit of these everyday from now on. " Mito and Naruto looked at her in horror. " It's part of your training so don't complain about it. "

Hours later

" Well that's enough for today dinner is ready. " Naruko told the twins, Mito and Naruto were playing shogi and things were in a stalemate.

" Ano when did you make dinner you've been here this whole time. " Naruto asked.

" Clones. " Naruko answered.

" Will you ever teach us that? It's so cool", Mito asked

" Later on yes, but you woun't be able to skip doing homework if you use it." Both Mito and Naruto seemed to pale a bit.

" I figured you would use it for that my little knuckleheads." She told them ruffling their hair. " Now gather things up here and let's go eat. "

After the twins gathered everything they made their way to the house and placed the items on the table before going to the kitchen, what they found there had the mouths hanging open. On the kitchen table, numerous dishes with food could be found.

" Why is there so much food? " Naruto asked. " Yes and what's all this stuff? " Mito asked.

" I take it you haven't eaten a lot of different dishes have you? "

" Why would we eat dishes? " Naruto asked " Yeah and how would we do that? " Mito asked. Naruko stared at them for a brief moment before she face palmed. _Uh I forgot just how bad things were at that age, the only real reason I learned manners was because of my love._

" Uhh, I'l teach you how to cook different kinds of foods, which can be called dishes, and even though it looks's like a lot it really isn't, now less talking and more eating. " Naruko looked at the twins eating, _Kami they need to work on their manners_. " After this you can go and look over whatever the academy taught you today understood? " The twins nodded their heads between stuffing their mouths full. _Yep i need to get someone to teach them manners._

A few hours later, the Uzumaki twins were in their bed, getting ready to go to sleep.

" Today wasn't so bad. " Naruto told Mito as he was helping his sister tie her hair in a pony tail.

" Yeah but I wish we could have seen a cool jutsu." Mito answered.

" The clones are cool. "

" Yeah but I wanted to see something with a bit more kick ass and explosions. "

" Maybe later if we ask her. "

" Yeah, who's going to shut the light? "

" Um, rock, paper, scissors? "

" Um ok, on three "

Several minutes passed, and the only result the twins got were one draw after another.

" We're not using a coin again, the damn thing always lands on the edge. " Mito told Naruto

" Yeah, whose turn was to switch the lights off back in the apartment? " He asked.

" I don't remember we ended up going to be bed before we actually needed the light, you go tonight then I'l go tomorrow. "

" Ok. " After Naruto switched the lights out he made his way back to their bed and snuggled close to Mito, hugging her from behind.

" Goodnight nii-chan "

" Goodnight nee-chan "

* * *

**Land of Fire, region Kanto, capital city Osaka, daimyo palace. **

_And with that another piece is in place._ A man thought to himself as he moved a piece on the shogi board, he was in his early twenties with blond hair and with light purple eyes he had a white scarf around his neck and was dressed in an elegant white kimono with a high collar of a dark color, the edges of the kimono were of a sun kissed yellow, his pants were purple, the man was Norihiro Yamanoi, son of the current fire daimyo and the fourth in line for the throne.

Norihiro rose from his chair and looked at his family portrait_. It is a shame so many must die but it needs to be done, cutting the tree down will help to stabilise things later one. From the ashes and blood something far greater than before shall arise, something that the world has not seen for hundreds of years._

Norihiro heard a knock from the door, " Enter", a small smile graced his lips, a man with slick black hair and an eye patch over his left eye entered the room, he looked in his mid thirties and was wearing a battle kimono.

" Good news I hope" Norihiro asked.

" It is done my Lord" the man answered.

" Ah excellent_", a shame what happened to you Chizuru Honshō but it is for the greater good, that little red eye of his is so useful._

" And my dear brother? "

" His plan is moving forward. Everything shall be ready in a few weeks. "

" Good", Norihiro made his way to his desk and picked a picked up a small scroll and handed it to the man, " have I mentioned how much I like these autumn nights? " A code between the two men, it told him what ciefer Norihiro had used in writing the scroll.

" Not recently my lord. "

Norihiro smiled once more " Well now I have, you are free to go Soumei "

As soon as the man left Norihiro looked at a map of fire country with it's regions_, soon things will begin, alliances have been made, small discussions with the others are in play, the offer with that daimyo is perhaps my greatest feat yet. The guild will help to curtail things, getting them in the Pillars of Fire was just as tricky as I assumed, well lucky for me a few of my family members just happened to see the need to add it, and all it took was a bit of misdirection and drops of information here and there, my older brother has been so generous to allow prisoners to be sent their way. Though unfortunately Norio and Asako mostly likely suspect something more is at play, well with their soon the be demise it will matter little._

His eyes moved to a particular spot on the map_, Konoha, perhaps in hindsight the death of the Yondaime was a gift, the Sandaime is a skilled politician but he is old and set in his ways, he will not interfere with internal disputes, the Yondaime had been a young man at the time of his death who knows what he would have done in the upcoming conflict. It was still a shame he would have been a good figurehead for the future army, but there are others and they can be molded to fit the position. _

He sighed, his supported his older brothers idea of a greater involvement in Konona, but he preferred his guild to help curtail Konoha, the idea of a rebellion in the leaf was almost certainly doomed to failure, the small power base his brother's agent was building there was insufficient to have the God of Shinobi renounce his seat, their man did not have the reputation for the position, he was younger and he was skilled but he was not strong enough to truly deserve that title, he could lead a smaller village but Konoha was to much for him, he would need to stage a political coup to obtain the seat and that would just be worse. _No I must crush it one way or another, with brothers death things will close on that front. _

Norihiro's eyes moved to different locations on the map, the location of the Pillars of Fire and the location of several high ranked families. _Quite a few of the noble families have been checked and with the fall of that martial arts school my father reputation will take another blow and Isshin will be one step closer to joining me, he may be old but the men respect him and he is an good strategist._

Norihiro shifted and looked at his family portrait once more_, for what it is worth I am sorry Sho, Nunalaly, but know that you will not live long as orphans._ A few tears escaped his eyes, his plans involved killing so many people, so many deals were made and some were still being made, the people were used as bargaining chips, they would never be truly happy, but it the end it would be worth it, history may remember him as a monster for what he had planned but they would be grateful for that he would accomplish.

* * *

**Konoha, nightime. **

Naruko was making her way threw the Forest of Death, _ah good old memories_, she had been traveling threw it for the past thirty minutes and she had already been attacked by several creatures, _very large spiders, giant leaches, drop bears, some sort of messed up tigers, yep just like I remember it._ She stopped when she reached what looked like a clearing. _Well this is big enough, _she quickly bit one of her fingers and slammed her hand on the ground, smoke quickly filled the clearing and roars could be heard coming from the smoke.

" Wellcome back to the land of the living, I hope your teeth are still sharp, this place is good to stretch your legs. Now let the hunt begin. "

Another round of roars could be heard before several forms jumped out of the smoke and scattered inside the forest

* * *

**Blaze Country, unknown location**

Koji Nagumo stared at the sight of his collegue impealed to the wall by a massive black claw, his vision was blured and he was down on the floor bleading slightly from a head injury but he could see his colegue's body, he heard shouts all around him.

" Someone get some seditatives in the bloody thing"

" It's not working it's too agitated "

" Where's the damn cow? " A cow could be heard screaming as it was being forcefully pushed towards the creatures pit before the animals scream intensified and the sound of flesh being torn filled the air.

" Now use more sedatives! "

" It's working! " someone shouted.

Koji finally got back up again, and looked over the damage, only one of his colleagues had died this time. _It was a shame that the man died but his sacrifice would be remembered, he had been a true son of Blaze and would not be forgotten so easily._

He could see several people blocking the hole where their beast was kept, _It needs to be reinforced, damn it._ He had been certain that the existing restrictions could keep the creature at bay, but sadly it had noticed a weakness and exploited it quickly_, it's just what we need, but it needs to be controlled. _

There country had never been amongst the richest nations in fact it could be considered amongst the poorest, a great part of there land was unusable for farming, raising livestock was difficult as well, the fish seemed to have dried up some time ago as well, but they persevered and found ways to live on the island.

There had been conflicts with the Uzumaki when they were around mostly because of the sea borders but life had in hindsight been better with them around rather than them all dead and gone. Kumo had marched threw lands and during the second great war to lay siege to Uzu, they had pillaged what they could and left a trail of death and destruction in their wake, even now years later the area they had used had not truly recovered.

Many had believed that the price they payed for the fall of Uzu would be worth it and had given the Kumo invaders some leeway, sadly it was not, with the fall of Uzu there beloved Blaze had lost a trading partner, a reluctant one but still a trading partner, ninja hired from Uzu were no more and Kumo would not be approached, pirates infesting the water soon enough with Kiri and Kumo clashing from time to time. However, what they had not truly calculated was how big of an importance Uzu had in the region, a lot of trade that came their way passed threw Uzu first with Uzu gone a great deal of the trade dried up as well.

Attempts at taking Uzu for themselves ended in failure, the island had been battered beyond belief and there were a great deal of traps left behind that their men could not disarm, it appeared as if a scorch land policy had been employed there. Worse Konoha had made it clear that no one would dessacrate their fallen allies's grave.

It was from the despair of the wars that something great had been born, they had been hardened, there will made stronger then steel, they had passed threw the flames and emerged stronger for it, now they would show the world the glory of the Blaze.

The guild was an ace that they had, an important one, but they would need something else and that is where he and his fellow scientists came in, the creature they were attempting to create would be there hidden weapon. So far almost all of the creatures had died, but one had lived, even with all that had happened to it the creature refused to die it lived and grew stronger for it_, just like a true son and daughter of Blaze, soon our blaze will envelope the world._

* * *

**Land of Wind, region Bastaara, city Bastaara.**

A tall man with a wide chest, broad shoulders, muscular arms and legs, and a thick neck, he had pale skin and nape-length, deep black-purple hair which was kept neatly slicked back, he had a long stitched scar above his nose that stretched across his face. He had deep set drooping eyes, framed by many wrinkles, and thin eyebrows that appeared to be in a perpetual 'sad' position. The man was sipping wine from his glass as he watched the comings and goings of the people in the town, from his balcony.

He smiled all was going according to his plan, the small cold war between the daimyo and the Kazegake helped things along more than anything. He didn't blame either of them, each man was the result of different circumstances that were far beyond their individual control.

The daimyo had seen the horrors of war and the infighting for the title of ruler. The Yondaime Kazegake had come to power during the last war and had been unprepared for such a job. The disappearance of the Sandaime Kazegake had been a tremendous blow to Suna the search teams sent out had weakened Suna when and enemy attacked, the council couldn't find someone to take the role of Kazekage so they ended up ruling for a period, which end more in disaster then anything, while they had there strong points the people needed a unifying figure something that they had been unable to produce for some time.

The Yondaime Kazegake had seen his village weakened during the war and now wanted nothing more then to help restore it, however there in laid the problem, because of the war the man had been scared, he couldn't think of other ways to help his village recover, his militaristic tendencies were not something the daimyo liked, a man who wanted to ensure peace.

_Sad, both men want to protect something, and yet because of what they lived threw they can't see the others point of view, nor do they attempt, it's rather fortunate that they don't realise that they want the same thing, to ensure peace in the land and keep it safe. Heh all the better for me, I can move my men right under their noses and when the time comes I will take both titles. _

He knew he had to play the numbers game considering the strength of both sides, already he had managed to create a small army and recruit a few skilled people to work as his elite agents. He was even now building his reputation with the people, slowly making himself the other option for the people. _With my power base here in Bastaara, any rebellion starting here will be crippling to the rest of country._ The Tezuani, Azunite and Aranoi regions couldn't compare to the rich trade that Bastaara had to offer.

Although Wind country didn't have as many settlements as other countrys those they did have tended to be much larger, and the desert often made a great place to build hidden bases, few would dare to explore the harsh desert to search for such places, and with the storm brewing between the daimyo and the kage it would be even easier to do so.

He took lighted another buck cigar produced by his company and brought to his mouth, yes things were going well for him, it would take another roughly ten years for the plan to come to fruition and by then he would well entrenched and total victory would be in his grasp.

* * *

**Konoha, Uzumaki villa**

Naruko was sitting in a chair outside of her house watching the twins spar, the announcement of her ascension to the title of Hokage had gone well, the Sandaime had mentioned how she had been present when the village was created and that she had personally know both the first and second Hokages.

The meeting with the clan heads had gone a bit different, she was surprised when she found out that Konoha had a few more clans than her dimension but she figured it was because of her involvement in the past_. Huh while it appeared that in the past I couldn't change anything the present seems to have changed from my own because of my involvement_. Most of the clans had been accepting to a degree with the Uchiha seemed skeptical as to her identity, a quicky wave of chakra that all but brought the people to there knees and a few words about Uzumaki longevity and a special seal silenced the question, or perhaps it was the slowly build up of killer intent. She still needed to get more information on the other new clans and make the changes needed to Konoha to accomodate the new arrivals that would come in time.

" It appears we have an intruder " a clone told her.

" Hmm, I'l deal with it. " She quickly made another clone and left it with the twins before making her to see who had gotten near her home.

Naruko froze when she saw who the intruder was, she felt as if someone had gripped her heart, there in front of her stood a frightened six year old Hinata, _No it's not her_, it hurt seeing her, this wasn't her Hinata, it wasn't the woman who had seen threw her mask, the woman who had stolen her first kiss, amongst many more, the same woman who had charged the traitorous Uchiha with one arm and disembowel him, the woman who had become the Shadow Broker. She knew that eventually she would run into a version of this dimensions Hinata and she was determined to help this one reach her true potential.

" What do we have here? " She asked Hinata, who was shaking like a leaf in front of her, this Hiashi seems to favor the tough love approach as well. " Well? " She asked. " I...I... " Hinata never got to finish as Naruko hoisted Hinata over her shoulder and took off. For a few moments Hinata remembered the feeling of being so helpless just like the night the Kumo nin had kidnapped her, she froze remembering that time, everything seemed to slow down before she felt like she was falling and suddenly she hit the ground in a seated position " Who's that?" she heard a feminine voice ask and felt like the coldest winter winds had seized her. She slowly opened her eyes and in front of her stood the Uzumaki twins, the same she had been following.

She had seen them going in a different direction when they left the academy and decided to follow them, managing to slip past her caretaker, she had wanted to talk to them after they had helped her when a few bullies had attacked her but her caretaker had taken her away before she could speak to them, she hated her self for not stoping him and she hated herself for not having the courage to talk to them later and now they where in front of her and she didn't now who the woman was and what she would tell the twins.

" I think she's a classmate, she kind of look's familiar. " Naruto told Mito.

" This", Naruko began and placed her hands on Hinata's shoulders. " is Hyuuga Hinata, and she" Hinata felt her heart was going to explode, _How does she know me? What is she going to say?_ " wanted to approach you two to be your friend", the twins looked at Hinata in disbelief, and Hinata felt like all of her anxiety had disappeared, " but is rather shy about it, she followed you here but had some problems reaching the door because of the security seals isn't that right Hinata? Just breathe and nod", Naruko told Hinata in a low voice that only she could hear.

" Yes," Hinata managed to tell them.

" There you see, now my little knuckleheads properly introduce yourselfs"

Mito raised one of her arms to her chin and held it in a thinking manner she quickly approached Hinato until she was just a few centimetres from her face, which led to Hinata slowly turning red. " Why do seem kind of familiar. " Mito told her. " Hey are you sick? Why are you so red?" Mito quickly touched Hinata's forehead with her own and received a quick two fingered strike to the head from Naruko.

" You need to learn about personal space little one. " Naruko told her.

" Oww, what the hell is personal space? " Mito asked. Naruto was laughing nearby. " Shut up nii-chan. "

" Ok" he said in a suddenly depressed tone. Naruko looked at the two with an amused expression. _Kami he's whipped by his sister._

" It's something your going to have to learn about later, now I've decided to allow her to join in parts of your training", before the twins could say anything Naruko continued, " that means that she will still learn certain things from her clan while I will teach her other things, I woun't teach her things restricted to our clan. "

" And now my two little knuckleheads and guest it's time for some chakra exercises, " a clone of Naruko quickly handed each of the children a small piece of wood, the same one they had used the day before.

" Your going to use it instead of the leaf for the chakra exercise, " Naruko told Hinata who nodded. " Now get to work. "

Two hour later

" Good progress, now take a break after that Naruto and Mito you'll start the tree exercise, while Hinata you'll use these pieces as well and continue the exercise. "

_Hm they seem to be getting along, being around them should help Hinata a bit, this version of her is more timid then I expected, the plan was to build up my other version a bit then introduce the two but with that scrapped I had to change things a bit, this version of Hinata could've helped teach my other version manners like in my dimension, though I suppose this can work as well, the three can bond over training and Hinata can help teach them manners. Tsk the plan has changed a bit with the two of them, getting them to bond and become friends with the clan heads children will take a bit longer. I wonder if Tenten got adopted or if she is still at the orphanage? Hm I could try that weapons shop she worked at, finding a way to get her over here then let things take a natural route, heck the little knuckleheads are adorable and have plenty of charisma to make friends, but if she hasn't gotten adopted, should I adopt her? That would change things even more but things have already changed quite a bit, there's also Lee to add to the group. Well I guess that's something to think about. _

Again her mind wandered to the past, she seemed unable to truly change anything there, and she believed that the events her other self would live threw would be very similar to her dimension, now it seemed that plenty of things had changed, new clans, new ninja families, that was actually good, _a civilian council with some influence in the ninja affairs, what in of holy toad balls is such a thing doing in a ninja village is beyond me. The way the old monkey explained it, water boy created the advisers positions to help run that part of the village affairs and during the first war gave them a bit of more power, but it never went to far. The old monkey however gave them even more power during wartime, and would take back part of it afterwards, unfortunately he didn't take it all back, and after the Kyuubi attack suddenly the civilian council was born, they had used the power the old monkey have them before, a sign of trust on his part that a few abused, rather then force the issue and disband the damn thing he let it continue, he could have used set up but he decided to try and outmaneuver them rather then use force. Tsunade-ba chan never had to deal with this kind of crap, there were those old bag of bones, and an unofficial council did exist._

" You two start the exercise. "

" Hinata I want you to fight a clone so I can gauge your taijutsu level. " Naruko told her making a clone appear beside 's eye widened, _Oh no! Not that please, anything than that_. " I..I'm n..n..not veryyyy ggg..good at taijutsu. "

" Let me decide that, just treat it like a normal spar. " Hinata nodded and quickly activated her Byuakugan. Her eyes widened when she looked at Naruko, _her tenketsu are so large and I've never seen chakra pathways so well developed!. _

A few minutes later the spar was over and Hinata was on the ground panting, a clone of Naruko came by and offered her a bottle of water before proceeding to do the same for the twins.

" Hinata my clones is going to show you some katas that I want you to do. "

" Ano.. m.m. clan ooonly w...w.a.n..t..t.s to use juken"

" That's alright this is a variation of the juken, a friend of my mine created it a long time ago." Hinata looked at her in disbelief. There are variations of the juken?

" Now I want you to do these until I tell you to stop understand? " She meekly nodded.

Three hours later, the twins had been sent inside to clean themselves and prepare for dinner while Naruko remained behind and observed Hinata working on her katas.

" Enough" Naruko told Hinata and the girl proceeded to fall down her legs gave way and her exhaustion finally caught up.

Hinato looked down at the ground she could she see the same expression of the woman's face as her father had whenever they trained, a cold uncaring look that would often be followed by a few dismissive words, she wanted it to be over already, to just tell her she had failed and that she wouldn't let her near the twins because of her weakness, tears slowly began to form in her eyes.

" You've done well", came the stoic voice of Naruko, Hinata looked at her in her shock, _I did well?,_ " excellent even at some points", _excellent?,_ " for what it's worth I'm proud of you", Naruko told Hinata ruffling her hair, it was at this point that Hinata couldn't take it anymore and began to cry, she didn't know how long it had been since someone had told her those words. Naruko for her part simply leaned in and hugged Hinata, who in response buried her head in Naruko's chest and gripped her tightly, afraid that it was some sort of dream. " It's alright little one. "

_Damn it, Hiashi really needs better parenting skills, if Hinata is this bad is really don't want to know how Hanabi will turn out. Ufff, back home although Hanabi was cold towards Hinata she still relied heavily on Hinata for emotional support and someone who would show her actual affection, something that Hanabi would only see around the village and a few in the clan but never received herself. The little firecracker had begun to act out when Hinata became more Hyuuga-ish and lashed out when we became a couple and Hinata didn't have nearly as much time for her, well that and with her being the Shadow Broker. Kami the confrontation with her was ugly, and it took a while before she admitted she actually relied and needed Hinata, how many sessions with a Yamanaka did she go to? Uhh just something else to help with. Hopefully there will be some survivors that will be Hanabi's age so that when I bring them here they can become friends. _

" Are you feeling better? "

" Yes, " Hinata answered wiping her tears away.

" Good, now I meant what I said, you did great just now I want you to come join the twins when they train from time to time all right? There will be times when I train them in clan techniques but the rest I want you here as well, understood? "

" Yesss, bbut why? "

Naruko smiled at her, " I think you have a lot of potential and you remind me of a good friend of mine, _or my dead lover_, the fact that you managed to follow the twins here and get past some of my security measures certainly proves that, o_r just that the seals were destroyed over time and that I need to fix them,_ now how about we got eat. " Hinata meekly nodded her head and they began to make their way towards the house.

" Finaly you're here we can eat now! " Mito told them

" Ma ma ma nee-chan calm down. "

" Shut up nii-chan"

" Ok "

" Come on you Hinata you can freshen up after we eat. "

The dinner had been eventful to say the least, Hinata would smile and giggle from time to time at the twins interactions, while Naruko looked onwards horrified at their manners, _I really can't take them anywhere expensive, or bring over people for dinner._ Perhaps the most eventfull part was when Mito and Naruto and began fighting with their spoons for the last piece of stake while holding on to the last piece of steak with their forks. Hinata simply looked at the conflict barely containing her smile_, I wonder if she's ever seen something like this, probably not._ Naruko smiled when she remembered similar events with the rokie nine, she and Kiba had been in almost the exact situation.

" Nii-chan I think you want to let go"

" Nuh uh nee-chan you should let go "

The twins continued to glare at each other, before they began to fight with their spoons again in earnest.

" Enough you two, I know how to solve this problem", Naruko quickly took the piece of stake and placed it on her plate and the proceeded to cut it and eat it front of the twins who had a betrayed look on their face. " What? " she asked.

" You eate it! " The twins shouted.

" Yes I solved the problem, I didn't say I would give it to either of you did I? "

" Well no", Naruto began

" And I did solve the problem just not the way you thought I would didn't I? "

" Well yes but " Mito began

" Then don't complain and pay better attention to what people say. On that note, Hinata here will help teach you two better manners. "

" Um, why? " Naruto asked.

" Becouse at this point in time I think the dogs in the Inuzuka kennels have better manners than you two"

" Oi oi oi"

" As Hokage you will have to meet with nobles and other people were good manners will be an invaluable skill you didn't have anyone to teach you before but now you do so don't complain. "

The two nodded at that.

" Can you really help with this stuff Hinata-chan? " Naruto asked.

" Hai, even nnoww aaadaysss I'm being ttaaught ttthingss like propper etiquet and tttabllle mmanners. "

" Neat thanks then ". Mito continued for her brother.

" Hinato do you know to play shogi? " Naruko asked. Hinata simply shook her head.

" Excellent then the twins can teach you, while they do the dishes you can freshen up. Mito here is going to loan you some clothes. "

" I am? " Mito asked.

" Yes you are, in fact you two can go now while Naruto starts with the dishes. "

" Hai. " Mito told her and quickly took Hinata's hand and ran off with her.

An hour later found the twins still playing shogi while Hinata was on the floor asleep covered with a blanket.

" Well this is interesting" Naruko told the twins in a low tone of voice.

" Yeah she fell asleep a while back I guess she was tired or something", Naruto told her.

Naruko snorted " Not everybody can act like a chakra bunny or a chipmunk who just drank a kettle of coffee. "

" Is that an insult? " Mito asked.

Naruko shook her head and patted Mito on the head. _We have a long road ahead of us,_ she sighed " Now I'm going to take her home you two start on the puzzles. "

" Hai! "

Naruko quickly picked up Hinata then began to make her way towards the Hyuuga clan compound, on the way there she tightened her grip on Hinata who seemed to snuggle close to her. _Things will be different for you. I promise it. _

* * *

Hiashi Hyuuga could wear a stoic, emotionless face like it has carved out of granite, few things could make him show any reaction, the announcement of the new Hokage and subsequent meeting had been no exception, he had kept his face completely stoic and was interested in this new development, like many in his clan.

The few times when his stoic resolve had broken were a mixture of both good and bad situations, the birth of his daughters, his marriage to the woman he loved, the death of his brother and later of his wife, life had not been easy on him and now it appeared to test him once more with the disappearance of his oldest daughter.

Hinata had managed to slip past her caretaker and had disappeared. He had sent out his clansmen to search for her when her caretaker returned after searching for her for hours. Even now hours later no one had seen her, he was worried now, _did Kumo attempt something again? _He clenched his fists when he thought of those people, _savages more like it._ He had looked for her as well before returning to his office, just then someone rushed in his office, a branch member, Idoshi, as he remembered.

" Hiashi-sama" the man managed to say between ragged breaths.

" Yes, what is it? Have you found Hinata? "

" Godaime-sama has arrived with an unconscious Hinata-sama at the gates, and is awaiting you there. " Hiashi's eyes widened his daughter was with the Godaime and was unconscious?

He quickly made his way to the compound entrance and did indeed find the Godaime Hokage with his daughter in her arms. He noticed that everything in the area seemed to be the under some sort of heavy presence, the guards looked shaken and were sweating, he quickly noticed the Godaime look at him and giving him a small nod to which he responded, he made his way towards her feeling the pressure increase slightly with each step he took, and stopped in front of her.

" Hyuuga-san" she greeted.

" Godaime-sama" he responded.

Naruko lifted Hinata towards Hiashi and he quickly took her into his arms.

" Your daughter had a great deal of potential, especially in the stealth field, she managed to find my home and avoid some of my security measures. I agreed to train her and will expect her to return tomorrow so we can continue training, her escort will have to wait outside, though I will send a shadow clone with her when she leaves, she can aid my little knuckleheads in a few ways. Good day Hyuuga-san. "

And like that she was gone and the pressure quickly disappeared. Hiashi's thoughts were in chaos he knew his daughter had potential but for the future kage to say so was still unexpected, _how did Hinata find the Godaime's house and why did she sneak past her security measures? Was Hinata with the Godaime this whole time training?Who were the these knuckleheads she mentioned? Could she have been refering to the jinjuriki? then they could actually be of Uzumaki descent, and not just named in their honor. _

These thoughts and other plagues his mind as he was making his way towards his daughters room, he had tried to treat her like his father had treated him but had little results, the rather classic way of the Hyuuga did not work on her, his wife had been better at it then him, and her lose seemed greater then ever. Though now things seemed a bit better, for a brief moment Hiashi allowed his stoic mask to break as he kissed his daughter's forehead and tucked her in.

* * *

**Land of Lighting , region Sendai, Kumo**

J was a tall, elderly man distinguished by his massive, extremely muscular physique, untarnished despite his advanced age. The man had long light hair which was tidily gathered on the back of his head and tied in a braid, which reaches down below his middle back, and is secured near its end in a large tuft; the thick beard and mustache covering J's lower face, linked to his hair by the J's sideburns, were untamed, with several spiky strands jutting outwards from the latter one.

He had marked facial features and a long, massive and mildly rounded nose. His sunken eyes, topped by light and bushy eyebrows, were very distinctive, being almost completely white, as if they lacked pupils, and has a black underlining around his lower eyelid; something which gave him an otherworldly look. J had a dark Kumo mark located in the center of his high, mildly wrinkled forehead.

He wore a short, mildly loose and dark kimono with light edges and cuffs, secured around his waist by a light sash tied on the front with a simple knot, whose right side is casually left hanging over the side of J's corresponding leg, revealing part of the man's muscular torso. While the right part of the garment is sometimes worn normally, with J keeping his left arm in the sleeve, J has also been seen resting such arm in the front part of his kimono, casually hanging from it, and thus leaving the other sleeve hanging from his left shoulder hollow.

His legs were covered by a very loose pair of light pants, which on front of each leg bore a vertical line composed of many dark rhombs joined together and lined up. For footwear, J donned a simple pair of black sandals, and his forearms were wrapped in light bandages. Circling his massive neck was a necklace composed of many large, dark spheres.

J looked at his daughter and young student training, their strength was growing and they were amongst the strongest in their age group, stronger than even some of the older shinobi, they would be amongst the strongest soon enough_, as it should be._ His village was the strongest not the tree huggers, the last should have ended with Kumo tearing down the leaf village. He was the brother of the Sandaime Raikage, he should have been the one to take the mantle of Raikage not A.

A confrontation would soon occur between them, A had made a mistake and failed to retrieve the Hyuuga girl, that was one black mark on him, worse rather demanding the girl and then marching in and taking her by the neck he had settled for peace. The tree huggers had bent backwards for Kumo giving them a Hyuuga, they were weak and ripe for the finishing blow, to have someone like that be called the strongest was an insult that should not be tolerated. His treatment of the village tools of war had been worse rather than using them properly he had forbidden their ace in the sleve to use his full transformation.

A case against A was slowly being built, he would that he was the better choice, he was stronger then A, his students were stronger then A's, his methods were better then A's, he would take the mantle and ensure that everyone knew that Kumo was the strongest, he would leave no doubt about it.

* * *

**Land of Fire, unknown region, unknown village.**

Izaemon Tōdō stared at his burning village, all his life he had lived here, his family had lived here for generations working the land, a good simple life and now it was over. Keep moving you maggots a voiced shouted from behind him. He was in chains now, like many of the other villagers his wife and children behind him, men wearing a strange symbol had attacked their village the night before. _Kami what are they going to do to us? Where are the ninja? The soldiers? _As if someone had heard his unspoken question he soon received an answer from two men in front of him, two that had been part of the attack.

" Ah Kami it's good to be part of the Pillars of Fire eh Nagi? " Izaemon's eyes widened, _the Pillars of Fire were supposed to help protect their nation, they were supposed to be guardians!. _

" Damn straight, another man answered and looked back at the captured villagers, Oh don't make that face, he said looking at them, if Bora was here he would have raped the women, may have even insisted he do it in front of there husbands. "

" Yeah, a pretty sick fuck that one, though he had some skill. "

" Meh, don't worry folks you'l soon forget everything that happened and be useful for the coming conflicts, good loyal little soldiers. "

" Both of you shut up" came a voice from behind the two men, " Don't tell these fools our plans "

" It's not it will matter that much, they woun't say shit once were done with them, and we will gut anyone who tries to escape. " the man said as he pulled out a large knife.

The first man turned addressed the villagers again, " hey don't worry you'l really useful to us, why even now were going to make look like your little shit hole was attacked by some bandits and our guild attacked them and killed them, sadly it was to late for the lot of you but we will hunt these wretched bandits threw out the land to avenge your loss. So you see you'l be useful in more ways than one. "

Izaemon didn't say anything all he could do was hope that someone would save them, but the chances of that happening were low, so he simply stared ahead hoping for a miracle that would never come.

* * *

**Land of Rice Fields, location unknown**

A figure with extremely pale skin and waist-length black hair, a long face with pronounced cheekbones, golden eyes with slits in his pupils and purple markings around his eyes, he was wearing a pale yellowish furisode-style kimono, with a black polo neck underneath tied with a dark brown sash, and flat dark-coloured zōri sandals.

" It is almost complete my lord Orochimaru. "

The figure now knowen as Orochimaru waved his hand dismissing the man. Orochimaru looked at the final touches being done to his most recent base, things were going well, even better he expected, his hidden village was coming along nicely, he had found plenty of recruits with potential and had even been approached by this organization to join there ranks, the leader had such interesting eyes, he accepted there invitation and would need to spend more with the group to properly gauge there abilities. The entire group seemed to be made up of interesting individuals_, it is so sad that I can't strap them to a table to cut them open, but there is still time and I have patience. _

He still needed more recruits_, perhaps a few more trips in the surrounding country side and countrys would help things along_.

* * *

**Land of Earth, region Sinnoh, Iwa **

Akainu was an incredibly tall man, with a square shaped face, very pronounced facial features and short black hair and had brown eyes. he wore the standard attire for an iwa shinobi a red outfit with both sleeves and a brown flak jacket he also wore mesh armour around his ankles and had black gloves and combat shoes. He had a tattoo on the left side of his chest that contained numerous images of flowers integrated into its design. Akainu's tattoo had flame-shaped edges and it extended from his left shoulder to his hip, covering part of his back and ribs. He had another, smaller tattoo in the shape of a black sword on his right deltoids and a small part of the biceps.

Akainu stared below at his beloved village, he loved it, they were the ones who enforced justice in this part of the continent, they were to ones that kept the barbarians from the lands of chaos in check, it was there blood that was spilled to keep them in check, not the samurai, not the desert rats who would bury there heads in the hands when things looked grim.

It was because of them that the Land of Birds had not fallen to the barbarians onslaught and had managed to remain standing. If he was in charge, he would have marched his forces and stomped the barbarians and brought peace and justice to those lands, then marched into Suna and bury the desert rats once and for all. But he wasn't in charge, _not yet anyway_.

The Sandaime Tsuchikage had so far refused to nominate a Yondaime even though there were those out there with the potential to take his place. He himself was one, he was know to the ninja, had a reputation in the Elemental Nations, and had a strong bloodline to aid him, his greatest regret was that he didn't get to fight the Yellow Flash in the last great war, Kitsuchi the Sandaime's son was also a prime candidate while he didn't have any unique abilities he was known and well liked and respected, his skills with earth release were excellent, another strong candidate was Jura Neekis the "Iron Rock" he seemed to be the best combination between himself and Kitsuchi.

Akainu clenched his fists when he saw a few of his fellow shinobi remove more rubble from the village_, that little punk!,_ Deidara had betrayed the village and ran off but not before blowing up several buildings, resulting in the death of several villagers and destruction of his village. He had hunted the traitor down but had lost his tracks and had to give up the chase, he would find him again someday and make him pay.

His thought drifted to the man he had executed not long ago, the man had told him that if their kage doesn't nominate him for the position he should build his own hidden village and make himself a kage. He couldn't tolerate such treasonous words and proceeded to execute the man, the Village Hidden in the Vulcano_, bah like I would ever betray my village_. He knew one day he would get the position then he could change things for the better in Iwa and in the Land of Earth he could ensure that justice came down like a hammer upon the scum. He could still wait there wasn't anything that truly forced his hand to take more drastic steps, he doubt that great change was on the horizon or that the scum in the Land of Earth would suddenly commit such crimes as to draw his attention, his methods and reputation for dealing with such filth gave him a fearsome reputation, his name alone was enough to scare bandits away.

* * *

**Land of Earth, region Sinnoh, capital city Aklan, daimyo palace. **

Ginjirō Shirogane, the daimiyo of Earth Country, stared at a map of his country, his goals clear to his mind though more difficult to implement. [2,3]

_Hmmm where oh where should I create this new region? Hmm perhaps if I take a bit from Taipei and Hualien, hmmm but both are a bit poor, I cannot give such a thing to one of my own blood, how would they live?_

He looked at the map again, he needed to further divide his country and create a new region for a family member of his, but where still eluded him, it wouldn't be near the Lands of Strife, that place was far to dangerous and the people near it had been dealing with it for a long time, they had experience with such things it would be best to interfere there if it wasn't absolutely necessary.

_Hmmm perhaps_, he looked at the map again, _hmmm if I take a bit from Yilan and Hualien then maybe? No no I couldn't do that. Perhaps then a bit from_, his gaze returned to the map, _yes yes this will be perfect, a bit of Hualien and there the new region is ready, and I even have a great name for it, Miaoli. [4] _

_Now the funds for this new region, hmmm oh well Iwa will have to take a slight cut to their funds. And perhaps ... Then a thought struck him, offf that's right at the last party someone suggested some games, what were they called?, ah yes The Hunger Games that's what they called them, that may be a good idea after all, it would help cut down some of the rift raft, provide entertainment and even feed a few of them, now who suggested them I wonder? Ah yes Yasochika Iemura-kun. Well then I must contact him at once, ohhhh this is so exciting._

* * *

**Konoha, night time, village outskirts **

The cold night wind blew against Naruko as she let her gaze linger a few minutes at the sight in front of her. _Tsk look's like that old monkey let more than a few things out of hand. I wonder did mother ever know of this place?_

Her gaze rested on the Uzumaki Clan Mask Temple or what was left of it, the temple was in ruins, her rage slowly began to boil, even with the wars it would only take a few people to maintain the temple, she had already lost a great deal of respect for the old man, but he was still useful in his own way and had managed to keep things together until now. _For people who honor the Uzumaki clan so much by wearing their symbol they seem incapable of taking care of one of their temples._

The temple was also built as a sign of trust between the Senju and Uzumaki clans, however the temple here in Konoha unknown to the people was built as a back up for the one in Uzu, the masks themselves would never hold the same power as the one's in Uzu, it would take the destruction of the one's in Uzu to make these just as powerful. _Oh the irony of the situation does not escape me at all, the second choice becomes stronger with the fall of the first. _She clutched the two scrolls strapped to her lower back before she shook her head.

She calmed down and approached the temple, _no seals or defenses at all?_ after she opened the doors to the temple she could see another set awaiting her, she closed the first doors and after she took a few steps inside a seal quicky became visible on the second temple doors. Naruko smirked as she observed the spiral like seal on the doar and the simbols inbetwen the arms of the spiral, _it look's like Mito-chan took my advice_, she quickly went threw the simbol combination necesary to open the doors.

As Naruko touched the last symbol the seal seemed to be light on fire before it died down, Naruko slowly touched the doors with two fingers and they opened.

The inside of the temple was bathed in a blue light, masks littered the walls of the temple and in the middle a small shrine with tablets upon it could be seen.

Naruko looked at the source of the light in the temple, small crytals from which the light emanated were scattered in the room, _another lost legacy of Uzu. _

The crystals were one of the great secrets of Uzu, alongside the secret of how the Uzumaki clan created the death masks and the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.

The cave that contained the crystals was discovered by a clan member, Surik Uzumaki, she found it across the Khoonda plains in the side of a small mountain, the inside of the cave was bathed in a multitude of colors, red, blue, yellow, green, it seemed that almost every color was there.

What the clan soon discovered was that the crystals could actually absorb chakra and it could be stored within them for long periods of time. The crystals in the cave had absorbed some nature chakra from around the island.

The crystals soon replaced candles in some places in Uzu and the clan began to experiment in using them in sealing. The problem was the extraction process of the crystals and the amount of chakra the crystals could store, the size and shape didn't seem to matter as in some cases small pieces of crystal could hold the the reserves of jounin with ease while other larger ones would crack from the reserves of a genin. A new study field was created for the crystals to discover their capacity and appropriate use. _A shame I couldn't see just how far the research went, the ones I did see showed such great promise !_

The crystal used for Hashirama's necklace came from the cave and had one of the largest storeing capacity hence why it was used for the creation of the necklace and imbued by Hashirama with large amounts of his chakra.

Konoha was never told of the crystals the ones present had seals on the as did the one on Hashirama's necklace they where mostly told that it was the seal that illuminated the place and the crystals were nothing special, considering that the clan had precious jewels on the island it wasn't that much of a stretch.

As she observed the temple she noticed a chest with a symbol behind the shrine that made her heart skip a beat, she quickly made her way towards it and kneeled down in front of it, her hands hovered above the seal afraid that it would disappear if she touched it_. Kami the woman sucked at drawing._

Tears came to her eyes as she looked at the symbol and she remembered the question that usually accompanied it, _Do you think fairys have tails?_

The chest had a very poorly drawn fairy with a tail on it, _definitely one of Mavis-chans drawings, perhaps she'd managed to set up a few back up plans as well._

As she looked around the chest Naruko realised that it had a rather larger amount of protection seals around it, clever as always Mavis-chan, _but I always liked solving puzzles._

With a brief hand movement she summoned several clones and tossed a clone one of her scrolls_, I had hoped to find more here and Mavis-chan seems to have pulled threw on that front._

" Go gather the masks, the tablets and the crystals then seal them " her clones all nodded before they began there work.

As Naruko continued her work on the seals surrounding the chest, she realised that the seals were made in such a way that no one but her would be able to release them, once she looked at the symbols and algorithms used for the seals, she realised that Mavis had recreated this way some of the most memorable game they had played, to release the seal she would need to use the same moves, she smiled those games were etched into her brain, she shewed small tears of joy as she continued to unravel the masterpiece Mavis had created.

After almost three hours she had finally finished the last seal and the chest was now safe to transport, she had been so caught up with the memories of her friend that it had taken much longer than it should have. _Meh, it was worth it I have no regrets._

She quickly sealed the chest in a scroll after checking over again, and grabbed the scrolls with the other items her clones had sealed away. She had entertained the idea of leaving the crystal behind but decided against it, best she take it all with her.

As soon as she exited the temple room she quickly ran threw the combination and reactived the seal on the doors. After she exited the temple she took in a breath of the cold night air, this was another weapon that would not fall into the hands of a madman, another piece of her heritage, another tool to be used in the wars to come. With one last breath she began to make her way back home, she still needed to perform the ritual for the soul clones.

* * *

**Continent of the Empire, Demon Country, desert Raraku **

A young girl with pale lavender eyes and light blond hair that fell past her waist, which was keeped tied at the end with a bow, sat in the middle of and empty stone room meditating, her robes bore the markings of a holy desert priestess, the robes were of a golden color, a black sash was tied around her waist.

" It is time " a gruff voice came from behind her, the girl, Shion opened her eyes and quickly picked up her wooden staff and stood up, she nodded in the direction of her guard as they began to make there way out of the chamber and threw the stone hallways.

As they were making their way towards to outside she could hear drums being beaten they became louder and louder as she was nearing the exit.

As she exited the temple and stepped onto the sacred temple ground she could see the people gathered in front of the temple, my people, thousands upon thousands, all awaiting to hear the words of the sacred priestess to one who would speak the words to guide and enlighten them. The sound of the drums grew louder. Her heart felt like it was trying to mach the rhythm of the drums.

Shion could see her people all performing rituals, songs were being sung, animals sacrificed, their warriors tested themselves against each other, the sound of their swords clashing against one another, her peoples voices were like an ocean. The shamans were using their cursed abilities against each other. They had embraced the dark ways of the cursed sage tainting themselves forever to aid their beloved people. At the very front of the temple stood there holiest of warriors, the strongest there people had to offer, all kneeled awaiting the word of their priestess.

A louder thunder could be heard all around followed by several lightning strikes hitting the ground in several places amongst her people. _She's here!_ And like that the voices seemed to quiet down.

She had finally arrived, followed by her guards, _the Black Guard_, she was there soul and voice, their holy priestes, her mother had finally arrived, the woman's power commanded the sky itself.

Her mother, Hasik, made here way to the center of the temple's podium, with a wave of her hand and with that the little voices remained were quickly silenced.

" My people, sons and daughters of the desert, too long have we allowed the dogs of the empire to trample our lands. "

Slowly chants could be heard from the crowd gathered in front of the temple.

" To long have our ancestors gone unavenged. "

Slowly the chants became louder and louder and now they could be heard "Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum."

" Their blood calls out from the earth for justice! "

"Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum."

For Shion the chants of her people were like music for her soul, she could feel their hearts beat as one as her mother spoke.

" A justice we must deliver with fire and sword! "

"Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum."

" The Empire is weak, they could never hope to break our spirit, our faith, that has preserved us since ancient times "

The chants grew louder and louder, "Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum."

" We held true to ourselves when the great Beast came and attacked our land. "

"Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum."

" We held true when the Empire marched on our lands with the teachings of the wretched sage. "

"Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum."

" This is our time! " Hasik raised her arms towards the sky and clenched them, in the distance a gigantic whirlwind could be seen taking form as it slowly descended from the sky towards the earth.

"Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum."

" TO WAR! "

The peoples chants were deafening.

"Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum."

" Against the power of Raraku there can be no victory. "

Shion was crying, it had finally begun, the empire would soon fall and then they would march upon the lands that gave birth to the wretched sage and his accursed eyes and they would raise everything to the ground.

_Finally_, she smiled. " the Whirlwind has begun. "

* * *

Review away

Constructive criticism or pointing out a possible errors/issues within the story is always welcomed.

go to my profile for the maps

Check out the poll on my profile page and the forum were I have all of them :

www dot fanfiction dot net/myforums/Amidamaru88/4507080/

My goal was to write just 18 pages, but it just grew to a lot more, an extra 14 pages to be exact, I thought about splitting this chapter but decide against it in the end, there was a lot of ground I wanted to cover in this chapter.

Let's see who can guess where I got all the location names and who the bad guys are supposed to be.

- still not happy about the Hinata scene

- not happy about the speech Hasik gave at the end

- I wanted to write a breakfast scene with the twins at the beginning

- Decided to skip the announcement about her ascension and the initial meeting with the council


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